Rangers down Seattle, 4-1 Panarin, Kakko, Lafreniere, Chytil lead offense

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In Seattle, the New York Rangers redeemed themselves, slightly, after playing one of their worst games in recent memory, a 4-1 loss to the Nashville Predators on Thursday, in a 4-1 win over the Kraken.

Artemi Panarin hit for a double in the win.

An arena lighting issue caused a delay in the first period.

“I want it darker, so it’s harder for goalies,” Panarin said. “That’s why I scored two.”

Jonathan Quick made 18 saves in his first start for New York.

Justin Schultz scored in the first to give the Kraken a 1-0 lead.

“We didn’t execute very well,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “We weren’t moving, we didn’t have a lot of pace to our game. You saw that 5-on-5, you saw that on our power-play opportunities, and just the sharpness and crispness were not there.”

Panarin opened the scoring for the Rangers with a goal in the first period, his strike tied the game, 1-1.

Filip Chytil  had three assists for the Rangers.

“I liked the way we skated and competed right from the drop of the puck,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “Pretty consistent for 60 minutes.

“We improved upon a lot of things [after last game]. I do think that we eliminated some of those turnovers. I think the forecheck was good, I think that we kept them in front of us.”

The teams switched sides during the game, every 10 minutes to account for the lighting issues.

“Obviously not our best effort, all around,” Schultz said. “Decent first period, but kind of fell apart after that, and I don’t know. [We’ll] kind of turn the page and learn from it; try to get back to the way we were playing last year that made us successful.”

Kaapo Kakko scored his first of the year at 13:02 in the middle frame to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead.

Alexis Lafreniere then hit off a nifty feed from Chytil for a 3-1 advantage at 17:59, after two periods.

“We try to keep talking to each other,” Chytil said after his first three-point game in the NHL. “All three of us are trying to play our game, but we’ve got to communicate, and it was good. Good game for us today.

“For me, even if it’s a bad game, nothing changes … I know I can play hockey and how good I am and how good I can be. So that’s the most important thing for me and what I’m focusing on.”

Panarin then added his double in the third after gloving the puck to the ice and lifting into the net for a 4-1 lead, and final, at 5:30.

Philipp Grubauer made 23 saves in the loss.