NEW YORK — The Rangers are trying desperately to make a run down the stretch and find some way to get into the playoff picture, there’s no question about that. But whether or not they get there, the bigger picture objective this season has to be the continued development of their young, upcoming stars.
Which is what was so special about their 8-4 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, in the opener of a two-game series between the teams.
Artemi Panarin was brilliant, with a goal and three assists, and Adam Fox was brilliant, with a goal and two assists, but upper management had to smile about the fact that the No. 1 pick overall in 2020, Alexis Lafreniere, and the No. 2 pick overall in 2019, Kaapo Kakko, each scored a goal as the Rangers rebounded from Saturday’s discouraging OT loss in Buffalo.
The Rangers’ Kid Line, which has had a few different configurations this season, was back to its original look against the Penguins, with the 19-year-old Lafreniere and the 20-year-old Kakko flanking 21-year-old Filip Chytil.
"I'm expecting what they're capable of giving us,’’ Rangers coach David Quinn said when asked before the game what he was looking for from the young trio. "I think Kaapo has really made some great strides; I really have liked Laffy's game the last two or three games, and Fil is starting to play better… So, we're curious to see how this looks.’’
Quinn put the three youngsters together because he wanted to move Colin Blackwell up from the fourth line to play with Panarin and Ryan Strome. Quinn said he thought the gritty Blackwell plays a game closer to that of Jesper Fast, who worked so well with Panarin and Strome last season. The change paid instant dividends when Blackwell opened the scoring with his 10th goal of the season, at 1:35 of the opening period. Panarin and Jacob Trouba had assists on the goal.
The lead became 2-0 when Mika Zibanejad banged in the rebound of a Pavel Buchnevich shot at 7:28, and 3-0 when Panarin scored a power-play goal at 9:58.
Pittsburgh got on the board at 10:38, on a power-play goal by Jared McCann, with Ryan Lindgren in the box, but then Pittsburgh’s Brian Dumoulin took a holding penalty and Strome scored on the power play to make it 4-1 at 19:42.
Pittsburgh made a change in goal to start the second period, bringing in Casey DeSmith for starter Tristan Jarry. But the re-formed Kid Line made it 5-1 at the end of a tremendous shift in the offensive zone. Kakko dug a puck out of the corner and fed it to Chytil for a shot from the bottom of the left circle. DeSmith saved it, but Lafreniere collected the rebound, and, as he was heading behind the net, banked a backhander off the back of DeSmith and in for his sixth goal of the year, at 12:20.
Pittsburgh, though, got a goal back just 15 seconds later from defenseman Mike Matheson, who beat Igor Shesterkin (41 saves) over the catching glove with a hot wrist shot that may or may not have ticked off the stickblade of Trouba.
Kakko’s goal, a deflection on a power play at 6:10 of the third period — the Rangers were 3-for-3 on the power play — made it 6-2, but Jake Guentzel scored at 8:04 to pull Pittsburgh within 6-3.
And Buchnevich took a tripping penalty at 8:24, which seemed to signal trouble. Instead, the Rangers put the game away when Fox scored a shorthanded goal at 10:22 to make it 7-3, and Buchnevich scored just seconds after exiting the box to make it 8-3, at 10:41. Dumoulin finished off the scoring at 18:36.
