The Daily Sweep of the NHL starts in New York, where the Rangers hosted their rivals from Brooklyn, the Islanders.
The Rangers are sporting some new faces and a few youngsters, a novel idea for a Rangers’ roster.
Two of the newcomers, Michael Grabner and Brandon Pirri had goals for the Blueshirts in a 5-3 win over the Isles. Chris Kreider, Mats Zuccarello and J.T. Miller added goals as the Rangers surrendered a two-goal late early in the third but rallied with three unanswered goals in the final frame to pull away.
“Just for the team, it was a really good effort,” Kreider said. “A couple of lapses in terms of our rush coverage, but you see some of the things that we struggled with last year that we’re really honed in and focusing on right from the get-go, which is a great sign. You see us playing fast again.
“Again, 81 more games to play, but you want to play well in Game 1, Game 2, Game 3. Five-man units moving as a group. Suffocating them inside of that house. Eliminating their chances. Picking up pucks and going instead of getting spread out and giving up chances from those high percentage areas. Even when they were getting pucks and pucks didn’t bounce for us, you saw guys getting picked up, sticks getting lifted, guys getting cleared out. It’s a good sign.”
Nick Leddy and Cal Clutterbuck had rallied the Isles back from an 0-2 hole to tie the game in the opening four minutes of the third period. Brock Nelson scored in the final minutes of the game to make it more respectable.
Mika Zibanejad, also a new addition to the Rangers, had two assists on the night.
“In the big picture, it’s only two points. But I think for us, to play the way we did tonight and to do it against a huge rival of ours, I think it’s definitely a step in the right direction. There was a lot more, in my mind, a lot more positives tonight, and that’s what we’re going to try and build off,” Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault said after the game.
In Columbus, the Blue Jackets were hoping for a better outcome as the Boston Bruins skated off with a 6-3 win in both clubs’ debut on the season.
Brad Marchand scored twice and added three assists in the win for Boston.
“He played against the best players in the world and played well,” Boston coach Claude Julien said of Marchand. “There’s no doubt that he gained confidence from that.”
David Pastrnak, and David Backes also had two goals each in the win.
Columbus had broken out to a 2-0 lead in the first period.
“The big thing tonight is the character we showed,” Marchand said.
Cam Atkinson, Alexander Wennberg and Seth Jones had the Jackets’ goals.
Tuukka Rask got the win on 28 saves while Sergei Bobrovsky was tagged with the loss on 31 saves.
“Sloppy with the puck. Tentative, sloppy. You can use a lot of different words,” Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella said after the game.
In Buffalo, the Sabres are now officially snake-bitten after losing Evander Kane to injury in a 4-1 loss to the visiting Montreal Canadiens Thursday.
Kane went heavily into the end boards and remained on the ice for several minutes. He was helped off the ice and taken to a local hospital for precautionary evaluation.
“I don’t have [an update] further than he was sent to the hospital for further evaluation,” Sabres head coach Dan Bylsma said. “Obviously, he went into the boards hard and you saw the discomfort and pain he was in. But there’s really not more I can tell you other than that he’s getting checked out at the hospital.”
Al Montoya got the start in the Habs crease ahead of Carey Price and made 29 saves of the win.
Brendan Gallagher had two goals to pace the Habs’ offense.
Matt Moulson was the lone goal scorer for the Sabres.
“The season’s 82 games; that being said, you don’t accept the loss. That’s not our mentality, that’s not the message we want to get across. I think the message we want to get across is, we’ve got to keep an even keel, find a happy medium. You play the same way whether you’re winning or losing as far as streak-wise, but we’ve got to come ready to work tomorrow,” the Sabres Zach Bogosian said of the loss.
Torrey Mitchell and Andrew Shaw added goals for Montreal.
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