Perhaps the trade of captain Jacob Trouba will serve as a wake-up call for the New York Rangers.
The Rangers, who had lost six of their previous seven games, responded with a 4-2 victory Friday night against visiting Pittsburgh.
New York will try to start a winning streak when it plays host to the Seattle Kraken in a Sunday matinee at Madison Square Garden.
“It’s a starting point,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said of Friday’s victory. “Like I said this morning (after the Trouba trade), it’s a different direction and it’s a starting point for that. Yeah, a win is the way to start. If you’re going to start something in a different direction, you’d like to get out with a win, you’d like to get out feeling like you played well in the game, and I think we accomplished that.”
Trouba played parts of six seasons for the Rangers before being dealt to Anaheim for fellow defenseman Urho Vaakanainen and a conditional fourth-round pick in the 2025 NHL draft.
“Yeah, it was tough,” said Rangers forward Vincent Trocheck, who had a goal and two assists against the Penguins. “I mean, every team you go to, you build relationships with everybody on the team and, as cliche as it sounds, you become brothers with these guys.
“It’s always tough to see anybody go, but ‘Troubs’ I’ve known for a long time,” Trocheck continued, “and for him to go as one of the big leaders on our team, it’s always tough. It was a tough morning, obviously. We knew we had to come in here tonight and really show up.”
Artemi Panarin had two goals and an assist, Reilly Smith scored what proved to be the winner and goaltender Igor Shesterkin made 20 saves for the Rangers.
“There has been a cloud over our heads for a little while, and when you lose games, that’s what happens,” Trocheck said. “It takes wins like this and more passion, emotion out of everybody to get rid of that.”
The Kraken won two straight to start their four-game trip — 4-2 on Tuesday at Carolina and 5-2 on Thursday at the New York Islanders — before a 3-2 defeat on Friday at New Jersey.
Philipp Grubauer made 33 saves for the Kraken. One of New Jersey’s goals deflected off defenseman Adam Larsson after Grubauer made a save.
The winner in the third period came when the Devils’ Timo Meier poked a loose puck into the net after Seattle defenseman Vince Dunn hit the post while trying to sweep the puck out of his own crease.
“We didn’t have a lot of relentless, repeated attack on net,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said. “I thought Grubauer was really solid. They had a couple flurries and tough pucks in the crease, and he was strong. The disappointing story is we don’t get enough run support for him.”
Andre Burakovsky, who was a healthy scratch in the previous two games, returned and scored a highlight-reel goal in the first period. He carried the puck over the blue line on the right wing, then cut across the crease and between three defenders before putting a snap shot into the upper-right corner of the net.
“You don’t really want to be in that situation when you’re playing in your 11th year in the league,” Burakovsky said of being benched. “I mean, there have been a lot of games that have been good and a lot of games where I haven’t felt my best. The puck hasn’t really bounced my way, I think, this year.”
–Field Level Media
