In Buffalo, the New York Rangers opened their regular season after a less than interesting preseason slate of losses. 
On Thursday night, Alexis Lafreniere opened the scoring with a tap in off a rebound shot from Artemi Panarin for a 1-0 lead to the Rangers, en route to a 5-1 over the Sabres.
“Good start, the way we wanted,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “I thought we were really sharp in the first period, ready to skate, ready to compete, and just kind of stayed that way through the whole game. Specialty teams putting in a lot of time and saw some really good results.
“The power play I thought really moved the puck good tonight, and the penalty kill was absolutely courageous. The way they defended and the way they blocked shots tonight was something else. It’s one win, that’s a good start.”
Mika Zibanejad collected three assists in the win.
Igor Shesterkin made 23 saves in the win.
This was not how the preseason predicted this team would come out.
“It was a challenging night,” Buffalo coach Don Granato said. “You get scored on twice in the first I think maybe three chances against, it’s tough sledding. Especially in this scenario where you’re not in a rhythm, you haven’t played games in the regular season yet. We fought hard the rest of the game to try to dig out of that.”
Chris Kreider scored the first of his two on the night off a tip in on the power play in the first period for a 2-0 lead to the Rangers.
Panarin pushed the advantage to 3-0 at 12:49 of the middle fame on a wrist shot from the high slot.
The Sabres finally broke through with 90 seconds left in the second period on a snap shot from JJ Peterka to trim the Rangers advantage to 3-1.
“We’ve obviously struggled against the 1-3-1 (defense) in the past and we’ve got to figure out how to play a simpler game when we play it, because we just overcomplicated it tonight,” Sabres captain Kyle Okposo said.
In the third period, the Rangers’ defense locked down the game, and limited the Sabres chances.
Kreider hit for his double at 11:34 to make it 4-1, the goal was a shorthanded marker.
Jacob Trouba added an empty-net strike from the Rangers zone for the 5-1 final.
The Rangers blocked 23 shots from the Sabres in the game.
“I think it’s fun, honestly,” Trouba said. “A lot of guys get excited about it. It’s fun to contribute and do things like that. It takes some courage. It’s not for everyone, but when you have guys that are willing to do it, it kind of goes through the team.
“And it’s kind of an attitude that we want to establish early, kind of a culture, and I guess what makes our team us is that passion, that energy and that spreads throughout the locker room.”
Lafreniere’s efforts n the game may silence many of his detractors. His goal came off a crashing of the net on the left side and put a stamp on the game for the Blueshirts.
Devon Levi made 26 saves in the loss.
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