Rangers’ long-awaited 1st home win ‘definitely a sigh of relief’

At long last, the dam finally broke.

The New York Rangers won their first home game of the season. They beat the Nashville Predators 6-3 at Madison Square Garden on Monday night, ending a dreadful 0-6-1 home start that included five shutout losses.

“They’ve been pressing for this for a number of games now,” Rangers head coach Mike Sullivan said. “I said to them this morning, ‘That’s going to be our challenge tonight. We’ve got to embrace it and make sure that we help each other through this process.’”

Vincent Trocheck has 2 points in return

From afar over the past 14 games, as he dealt with an upper-body injury, Vincent Trocheck had reminded his teammates that they were playing well and that poor puck luck was to blame for their poor home start.

“Obviously, these guys care a lot,” Trocheck said. “And we know how much the fans care and how passionate they are, so we want to win for them even more. Sometimes, you squeeze the stick a little bit too tight, and maybe that’s the case, but it’s definitely a sigh of relief.”

Trocheck returned from long-term injured reserve for Monday’s game and provided an immediate boost to the Rangers’ offense. He contributed two assists, the first coming late in the first period on Vladislav Gavrikov’s go-ahead goal, making a nifty backhand pass to the defenseman, who was wide open at the point. Trocheck then provided a power play assist early in the second period on Alexis Lafrenière’s 3-1 goal.

Gabe Perreault notches first NHL point

The Rangers called up top prospect Gabe Perreault ahead of Monday’s game. He slotted in alongside Mika Zibanejad and J.T. Miller on the club’s top line in his season debut.

“Playing with those two guys, it’s pretty easy,” Perreault said. “Trying to just get them the puck, create some time and space for them.”

Perreault was credited with the primary assist on Lafrenière’s goal, receiving a pass from Trocheck on the wall as the Rangers’ power play entered the offensive zone and finding a streaking Lafrenière, who cut to the net and scored.

“That’s not an easy play,” Sullivan said. “And he has the capability of making those types of subtle plays that can help us.”

Perreault finished the night second on the team with an individual expected goals rate of 0.26, according to Natural Stat Trick. He trailed only Artemi Panarin, who scored twice in the win, in this metric.

Alexis Lafrenière tallies a season-high 3 points

Lafrenière was arguably the Rangers’ most impressive player. He made several high-quality plays and had a team-high three points. He now has five points in his last three games.

On the Gavrikov goal, Lafrenière battled hard to keep the puck in the offensive zone, then boxed out Predators defenseman Nick Blankenburg to screen Nashville goalie Juuse Saros.

“If that guy’s not there, it’s an easy save,” Sullivan said. “It’s not even a scoring chance. Not only can he make the save, he can control the rebound. When you’ve got net traffic, sometimes goaltenders will make a positional save. They won’t see the puck; it just hits them. But they can’t control the rebound. And that usually creates a next-play opportunity. We’ve been preaching it since day one of training camp, making sure that we get people there, and it’s another way to create offense.

“[Lafrenière] has done a really good job … having the awareness and willingness to go to that area of the rink. We don’t score if he’s not there.”

On his second-period tally, Lafrenière used his speed to get behind the Predators’ defense and open up a passing option for Perreault. He finished with a nifty move to his backhand, beating Saros five-hole.

Later in the frame, Lafrenière added assists on goals by Panarin and Will Cuylle.

“You always want to have jump,” Lafrenière said. “Skating legs felt good today. Being able to score helps the confidence always.”

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