The NHL is terrified of the Rangers... (here's why)

It's finally happening. After years of waiting and wondering, the New York Rangers have officially found their next superstar. And he, along with the rest of the team, are absolutely terrorizing the rest of the National Hockey League thus far this season. We're going to break down why this Rangers team, they're not back. I keep seeing on social media, I keep seeing everywhere that people are saying the Rangers, they're so back. No, this is a new philosophy, a new mindset, a new level of buy-in that quite frankly I have not seen from a Rangers team in many many many many years and this is not only feeling different but is truly different we're going to break down exactly why Rangers fans are absolutely fired up about all of this and why this team is going to make the playoffs we're going to break that all down and much more in this episode of Rangers Digest but guys before we jump into all of that a quick reminder to hit that subscribe button we've noticed that a large percentage of you guys who watch these videos every single day are not subscribed to the channel so if you want to stay up to date with everything daily that's happening with the New York Rangers make sure to hit that subscribe button and I am giving away a jersey here on the channel to one lucky subscriber for whatever comes first either 15,000 subscribers or the Rangers make the playoffs and let me tell you folks I'm feeling very optimistic this year because of the entire team but Alexi Lafrenière Alexi Lafrenière is making me look very smart for some of the stuff I was saying during the summer he scores again and not just scores again he scores two goals again he's been fantastic to start this season Alexi Lafreniere thus far this season 10 points ladies and gentlemen 10 points already this season he has seven goals He's leading the NHL in goals, by the way That's what those seven goals are good for And his time on ice continues to rise Not to the point that he's playing like 22 or 23 minutes a night I don't even know if they need him to do that And they're playing great I mean, this is a level of buy-in from all four lines That's fantastic I'm not going to mention it much in this video too But we talked about it a little bit yesterday Shout out to Matt Rempe for getting back in the lineup And getting into a fight You know, that was pretty electric Got the building going and the building was rocking early again because of Alexi Lafreniere and another game where the Rangers start the scoring in the first minute right they are starting on time they're starting hard they're coming out fast this is a different team folks like i knew they were going to be better and i was like i think they can get into the playoffs especially in the Metro this is a different this is something else this is something else that we're watching right now and it's not oh this you know it's so cute they started the season on like a four game heater and stuff like that no no no like now we're getting deep into it now we're like almost at the end of October to the point where you're like oh they're playing like this consistently like this is different this is different and Lafreniere is different they have found their superstar he's here he's arrived and I said during the summer based on what we saw at the end of last season if he continues to do that if he's able to do that consistently which he never really has over the course of his NHL career you have a player on your hands right and Ty Carbide has been fantastic too I want to talk about him later too but starts the game early and check this out over the course of a full season without Panarin since Panarin has left if you fit it to like a full season right since he left he would have 47 goals this is like a full season pace right based on what he's done in that time since Panarin left, 47 goals, 39 assists, he would have 86 points a plus-minus of plus 34 and 188 shots, that is a star player in this league that is a star player and you might be thinking he was drafted first overall, he should be this guy but it wasn't looking like he was going to be this guy for a long time and he is this guy now and I'm, well, I'm welcoming it in with open arms because I want it at some point and here it is in front of us falling into our laps now in 2026 and I am absolutely loving it, Lafrenière also went on to say that uh it feels good that he's playing good and winning also feels good so they want to continue doing that and I'm glad that it looks like they will and uh he's been fantastic man, no weaknesses so far this season he's been awesome early scoring, scoring often, seven goals on the year to lead the league, 10 points so far this season I mean if he can keep this up he can be a 90 point player and if you have a 90 point player on your top line that is a star and him with Zibanejad, Perreault playing so well with them they have two solid lines right now, solid solid not to say that the bottom of the lineup isn't good either everyone's playing well it's a group effort, even goaltending has looked good right like they're they're playing really well I'm really excited and you can see people are talking about it on Reddit too, like when you're taking that next step to becoming a superstar this season would be everything for this team and it's happening before our very eyes so it's so exciting and yeah again uh credit to Matt Rempe for last night too it's a full team effort man they are putting it everyone is bought in i've been talking about this that everyone is bought in you bring in a guy like Ty Cartier he said it's not about me being put on on waivers right it's not about proving Seattle wrong it's about proving the Rangers right i love this new attitude this year i absolutely love this stuff and you know Ty Cartier again no matter who he's playing with he gives a hundred percent and he goes and he's added a new dynamic to that second line and you know Pavel Dorofeyev i have to say Pavel Dorofeyev did move down there was a time yesterday when he was swapped for Bjorkstrand he needs to get going i'm not worried about it quite yet but he does need to get going but you have a 35 to 40 goal scorer who's not yet going yet and your team is this good and looking this good and winning games like this they're barely giving up goals i want to talk about that later in the episode as well this is a good squad this is a good team guys and fans are starting to take notice about it too you know the little things too the fist bump uh you know on the bench from Lafreniere to Cartier stuff like that you know they just all seem like they're having fun they all seem like they're playing for each other and when you have that you have something special so i'm really really excited and again the first two lines you know when you put Cartier with Miller and then we know like what Perreault and Savannah Jett can do and obviously Lafreniere on that top line depending who he's playing with and swapping around he is a positive impact on these people right so these are all good signs this is all everything you can't deny now when you look at the analytics since Panarin left and I'm not saying it was all Panarin's fault Panarin's a great player but he was soaking up a lot of the ice time in the role right uh taking it away from a guy like Lafreniere and again not to say that I dislike Panarin he's a great player and all that I I'm not going to explain myself but what I'm trying to say is the analytics there are now there to support that yeah Lafreniere when given that opportunity he can be that guy and he's being that guy right now so I'm so excited to see how this continues to progress and uh again like just so many standout performances from so many guys this year and like Fox one thing I could not stop talking about like Fox and Gavrikov last year I don't even notice Gavrikov this year because there's so much other stuff going on so many you know good plays going on from the forward group and it's it's awesome it's awesome to not have to talk about so much negative this year and Mike Sullivan's talking about how they've established buy-in right like the players are bought into the system and they're executing upon their system and they're building an identity of a team that i even saw it last year but they had a hard time scoring last year that does not give up goals does not give up goals and this is without Igor too right and credit where credit's due to Dylan getNode so it's awesome it's awesome he's talked about you know the buy-in too like the defensive buy-in has been outstanding this is uh you know from Adam Fox so it's been brilliant to watch it's been brilliant to see one thing that i think is super impressive i wanted to bring this up too um they're taking points away from almost every single team that they're playing right now they're operating at a very high points percentage which is obviously great uh you want to do that uh the New York Rangers have a 1.8 goals against per game very low i mean the league average is three right now so very low they're not allowing goals they're able to score goals now um and they win the the goal battle on most nights and and you know that puts them in a position that i mean their goal differential is 13 the league average is one they're playing unbelievable they're they're they're not allowing goals and they're scoring goals like it's it's awesome so uh and i know that's the name of the game you might be like why are you so impressed like that's literally how you win hockey games after watching this team guys the last two seasons just seeing some of these stats is unbelievable they're fourth in the NHL in penalty killing their power play could look a little bit better but their special teams overall are looking really good again again fourth in penalty killing like they're operating at a very high clip they just don't let goals in you can win games like that and that's the thing when the scoring does go away because it will at times this season it's just natural happens to every single team if you're not allowing goals you can still win games right so they're in a really good spot i'm feeling really good about it so you see people talking about it too this team has legs they don't stop skating they're establishing a forecheck they're establishing identity we're gonna run you through the boards we're gonna come after you we're gonna gather that puck and you're gonna have a hard time scoring against us and that again is a good place to be I love it and they're just continuing to trend up continuing to trend up since the start of the season and I'm really excited to see where this goes because the worst case scenario happened Igor Shesterkin your star goaltender got hurt and they have not faltered at all the mindset has not changed next man up it's Dylan Girard you know maybe Spencer Martin's going to get some games maybe they go out and eventually make a trade Jonas Gustavsson is going to return at some point but they're just playing like a unit they're playing for each other and you can win with that type of stuff and speaking of Dylan Girard i do want to touch on him quickly before we wrap up he's rocking a .950 save percentage in his career in the nhl and last night again a 4-1 win with 25 saves and .962 save percentage what do you say man he's unbelievable he's unbelievable i mean he's like imagine i was warned like i was justified it was a valid crash out on my part for worrying about this guy going on waivers what would you do right now if your starting goaltender was spencer martin don't disrespect spencer martin right what would you do right now thank god this guy was not claimed off waivers thank goodness because he is going to i i smell something special brewing here i smell something special brewing here and there was Dylan Chance at MSG last night and he said it felt weird because that's usually reserved for Igor Shesterkin and those chants so man he was great he was brilliant alexi lafreniere has been brilliant the rangers have been brilliant and i don't think i'm overreacting this team genuinely now as we head towards the last half of october looks like they can make some noise in the eastern conference this year without the best goalie in the league without the best goalie in the league by the way before we wrap up the rangers did make some roster moves today Cole Baldwin who only played three and a half minutes last night is sent back down to the hartford wolf pack and justin dowling has been called up and peter ball had some insight on that this morning he said that the The Rangers appear to be going with a more veteran center option than Justin Dowling. Sullivan cut the fourth line's ice time heavily last night. I mean, you have a rookie in Cole Baldwin. You have Matt Rempe. Not entirely surprising that that happened. He said postgame his plan was to play it more, but it didn't because of how the game unfolded. And Cole Baldwin, again, only played three and a half minutes. Now, interesting thing for me, and last thing I'll mention, the rest of the league is terrified of this team. because Tampa went into the first meeting a couple weeks ago and laid an egg, but the Rangers did play well. And then John Cooper, their coach, the Tampa Bay Lightning's coach, he came out postgame and he said, we did not play our game at all, and he credited the Rangers. And then he said, we're going to have a big bounce back. And that's why I was circling this game last night, because I said, this is going to be a real test, right? Igor's out now. It was a fun little weekend win against the Vancouver Canucks who are not a great team. What does this look like moving forward? Because Tampa's going to bounce back in a big way. and then John Cooper came out post game again last night and said we we didn't play our game it was god-awful that's one of the best teams in the league and the Tampa Bay Lightning one of the best teams in the Atlantic Division which is going to be a bloodbath this year and they have been playing well to start the year so far except for against the Rangers and the credit needs to go to the Rangers for that because they're not allowing other teams to play their game because the Rangers are playing their game they're dominating they're dominating so the credit needs to go to the Rangers there it's not the Tampa Bay Lightning didn't play well it's it's because they didn't play well because the Rangers played their game they imposed their will on the game when you have that when you're bought in when everyone's playing for each other when finally your former first overall pick is looking like a superstar that's a recipe for success this team's going to make the playoffs and they're going to do it without Igor and it's going to be a brilliant brilliant story let me know how you feel in the comments below and I'll see you for another video tomorrow