The New York Rangers have played well overall this season, but a recent two-game mini road trip to Canada has heightened some of the concerns about their ability to play away from home this year.
So far, while the Rangers are a perfect 6-0 at home, they are 1-5-1 on the flip side on the road. New York struggled to produce offense at first this season on the road, but as the offensive production has picked up, it has been some tough games for Dylan Garand, the defense, and some mental errors as well.
In their recent loss to the Ottawa Senators, the team showed a lot of resilience to come back after trailing early. While the Rangers get off to good starts at home, that hasn’t been the case on the road so far.
In the loss, the team did decide to shake some lines up, and it seemingly worked out.
Line Change Works Out
Even though the team might have lost, they did see Pavel Dorofeyev finally get a puck in the back of the net. The talented winger was acquired as the big prize for the team this offseason, and the results haven’t been exactly what they would have hoped for.
While the underlying metrics have been good and there has been no shortage of chances, Dorofeyev has had some unfortunate luck and has been a master of hitting the post at times.
During the game, Mike Sullivan made the move to switch Dorofeyev to the third line, and the results were instant. On his first shift with Will Cuylle and Noah Laba, this trio generated some good pressure and zone time.
Later on in the game, it would be Dorofeyev getting his third goal of the season on an absolute rocket. This was exactly the type of goal and shot that the Rangers were looking for when they added him, and the line move seemingly sparked something.
The goal was his third of the season and hopefully the start of something more. He was brought in to be an elite scorer for the team, and the hope will be that going forward he will be able to be that caliber of player.
Even though the team has moved him around the lines so far, he has been a pretty steady force on the first power play unit. While the overall season might not be going according to plan for Dorofeyev, his scoring a goal with his new linemates is encouraging.
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