The Rangers literally flipped the script.
After being eliminated against the Islanders two nights earlier in their season opener, the Rangers turned and handed it back, putting together their own 5-0 shutout performance against Barry Trotz and his company on Saturday-evening at Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers – after a 4-0 defeat in which head coach David Quinn questioned their efforts – finally showed up for the 2020-21 season. Even with their second highest paid defender, Tony DeAngelo, in street attire for an undisciplined unsportsmanlike conduct penalty taken in the first game, the Rangers looked like the team whose coaching staff gushed over their focus in training camp.
The effort was there. The smart steps were there. The Rangers were there.
Behind two goals from Pavel Buchnevich and Artemi Panarin, the 1-1 Rangers got the boost they needed from their top line. Alexandar Georgiev registered his fifth career shutout, with a total of 23 saves in the win.
The islanders got an early omen that their night was not going to be a good one when starting goalkeeper Semyon Varlamov got a puck to the throat during warm-ups and had to leave the ice, sending Russian prodigy Ilya Sorokin into his NHL debut without warning.
The Rangers got on the shots early and jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first period. Mika Zibanejad opened the scoring by stealing the puck from Islanders defender Noah Dobson, who found Buchnevich in the 2-on-1 rush at 2:12.
The Islanders’ defense took a hit shortly afterwards when Ryan Pulock absorbed a shot from Jacob Trouba to the side of the head and immediately walked to the locker room. But Pulock returned at the beginning of the second period.
Brendan Smith then intercepted a pass and hit a streaking Panarin, who sniped Sorokin on the right to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead, at 13:46, effectively their three-goal breakdown in Thursday’s loss left behind. .
In the second period, the Islanders were hit with multiple penalties, including two off Mathew Barzal. After Scott Mayfield got tangled with a linesman, Buchnevich grabbed the puck and ripped a hard shot from the left dot to make it a 3-0 game early in the second.
The Phillip Di Giuseppe-Filip Chytil-Kaapo Kakko line then forced a turnover later in the period, with Kakko rounding it off on a one-timer at 15:24 of the second.
The Islanders played better in the third period, keeping time in the Rangers zone and hitting two shots off the post in the last two minutes, but the Rangers dominated the entire time.
After Ross Johnston was punished for fighting Ryan Lindgren and Trouba, Panarin cleaned up the mess on the power play to cover the score.