Small sample size, but coach Peter Laviolette likes how Rangers are playing

CALGARY – On the day before his team opened the 2023-24 regular season, new Rangers coach Peter Laviolette was asked if he was pleased with the progress the players had made over training camp and the preseason in learning his systems. Yes, he said, he was pleased, though he added that the whole thing remained a work in progress.

“I do feel good about what we're able to put in play,’’ he said at the time. “I'm hoping we'll be better on Game 10 than we will be [for Game 1]. I'm hoping that we'll be better on Game 40 than we were at Game 10. And I think that's just a natural progression of a team that is working to find success and become a top team in the National Hockey League.’’

Tuesday’s game against the Flames at the Saddledome was the second stop on the Rangers’ season-long five-game trip and their sixth game of the season. At 3-2, with a couple of dominant performances, a couple of OK performances, and one stinker, Laviolette was asked if he felt the team was progressing the way he wanted as it headed toward that 10-game marker.

“After five games, and because the sample size that you're talking about is still [small], I even go back to [preseason games] 5 and 6, when it was mostly our team,’’ he said after Monday’s practice in Seattle. “I really liked the way that we competed and played, in … six of the seven games. I really liked the way that we tried to do the right things, and the intent.

“There were some mistakes that were made in some of those games,’’ he said. “But it seems the ‘cleaner’ we play, with regard to what we're giving the opponent … the better chances this team's going to have of being successful.’’

The Rangers have been mostly solid defensively this season, but a lot of things have gone right for them in the first five games. Entering Tuesday, they’d won faceoffs at a 55.7% clip, up over the 49.1% success rate they recorded last season.

Laviolette said improving the team’s faceoff numbers was a priority for him and that’s one of the reasons he hired Michael Peca, a respected faceoff man in his playing days, as one of his assistant coaches. The players say they study a lot of video of the opposing team’s faceoff men before games, but they also work on taking reps more at the end of practices, too.

Winning more faceoffs has no doubt helped the Rangers as far as having more puck possession and spending more time in the offensive zone than the defensive zone. According to the NHL’s new Edge statistics package, the Rangers are second in the league in the percentage of game time spent in the offensive zone (44.5). They have spent the third-least time in the defensive zone (37.8).  

Artemi Panarin, the team’s leading scorer, with seven points (three goals, four assists), leads all players in offensive zone time, at all strengths, spending 54.6% of his ice time there. His linemates, Alexis Lafrenière (fourth at 51%) and Filip Chytil (fifth at 50.9%) are right behind him, which reflects how dominant they have been as a line.

And the players seem to be getting more and more comfortable with all of Laviolette’s systems – not just the defensive system and his neutral zone, 1-3-1 trap – but with his offensive system, as well.

“I like it,’’ said Panarin of Laviolette’s systems. “Especially in the ‘O’ zone. All five guys are moving, which I like. It’s hard to score three-on-five, so when our defensemen jump [and join the play], it really helps. Because in the NHL, it's hard to beat guys one-on-one, easily … It’s hard to score, 3-on-5, if the defensemen go and change [when the forwards are rushing up ice].’’

Bonino: Game-time decision

F Nick Bonino, who missed practice Monday with an illness, took part in the morning skate Tuesday and was a game-time decision, Laviolette said.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.