Rangers Recall: Steady Jacob Trouba, and a perfect road trip
The New York Rangers have a well deserved day off after completing a perfect 5-game trek through Western Canada. It was a historic road trip as they won all five games for the first time in franchise history.
It all began two Saturdays ago in Seattle and ended on Monday night in Winnipeg. Five straight wins with two in OT, 17 goals for, 7 goals against, and a shutout by Jonathan Quick against Edmonton.
“Seems like we’ve been on the road for a long time,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “For the guys to throw in an effort like that, and to come back, is pretty amazing. Great win.”
Let’s recall some of the key takeaways from the Rangers’ win over the Winnipeg Jets.
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Rangers Recall: Jacob Trouba, perfect trip, and more
Jacob Trouba
While there’s been a lot of fanfare surrounding Artemi Panarin’s hot start, with 15 points (5 goals, 10 assists) in the team’s opening 9 games, defenseman Jacob Trouba deserves his accolades too.
The second-year Rangers captain got the party started with an excellent play in the second period to find Panarin for the game’s first score en route to a 3-2 OT win. For the 29 year-old, it was his third point of the season, which is an added bonus to what he brings on a nightly basis since he starts in defensive zone nearly 68% of the time.
Trouba leads the team and the NHL with 33 blocked shots, and is second behind Will Cuylle (25) for team leader in hits at 18. According to NHL Edge, he has one of the hardest shots at 93.71 mph which places him in the 91st percentile in the league.
“Whenever there’s a new coaching staff, I guess in my previous experiences, you want to try to build and find that trust of your identity and who you are and what you’re bringing every night,” Trouba told The Post. “I think that Nashville game was something that — not an eye-opener — but yeah we still got to figure out what makes us us. And I think we did a good job of it this road trip and we’re kind of figuring out the right recipe for us to win games.”
NY Post
Perfect Road Trip
We’ve already talked about the historic road trip earlier, but how good have the New York Rangers been? Since beating the Seattle Kraken on 10/21 to date versus the rest of the NHL, here’s some key numbers:
- Tied for first with Boston Bruins at 5 wins
- Ranked first for GAA at 1.40
- Ranked second for PP at 38.9%
- Ranked third for PK at 94.4%
- Ranked fifth in FO% at 53.5
Pretty impressive.
5 on 5 Scoring is a concern
One bad takeaway, that’s only been highlighted by the trip is the Rangers difficulty scoring at 5 on 5. To date, the team has 28 goals on the season but only 12 have come 5 on 5, which ranks 27th out of 32 teams.
The Rangers are going to need to get going in that department if they hope to hold first place in the Metropolitan Division. Their 14 points is 2 better than the second place Carolina Hurricanes, whom they play Thursday.
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