Something is completely different about this...

Something about this is completely different. The vibe in and around this team has completely shifted from big defensive plays from the captain after being called lazy last season, the detailed plays from some of the top guys, Igor quite literally doing it all and finally getting his first NHL goal. The vibe completely shifted with this team sending a major statement to the entire Eastern Conference, beating one of the best teams in the league last season and pretty handedly while playing their game, doing exactly what they set out to do. And this might be just a small glimpse of what the Rangers are going to be able to do this season. We're going to break down some very interesting key details heading into another crucial matchup against an Atlantic Division team. Much more on this episode of Rangers Digest, including what the lineup will look like tonight, because yes, they play again. But before we get into all of that, guys, a quick reminder to hit that subscribe button. We've noticed that about 80% of you guys who watch these videos are not subscribed to the channel, which means you, yes, you, you're missing very important details and multiple updates every single day on what's happening with this Rangers team. So now that the season's here and they look so electric after last night, make sure you are subscribed to the channel. And I'm also giving away a jersey here on the channel to one lucky subscriber, whether we hit 15,000 subscribers first or the Rangers make the playoffs. And I'm feeling pretty good about that. We're two games in, but last night was electric. That is the word I will use to describe it. The new look, New York Rangers, ladies and gentlemen, Pavel Dorofeev, game winning goal, two points on the night, Oliver Bjorkstrand got an assist. And I looked at Twitter, lightning fans were saying that was the fastest he was skating in two seasons. Eli Tolvin and Gabe Perreault scored. Albert Schmitz led the team in plus minus, sorry, the game, not just the team. And Igor Shosturkin literally doing it all himself, scoring a goal. Now I've never seen an offense pay off so quick, sorry, an off season pay off so quick. It's true. They looked dynamite last night. If they can continue to do this, if they can put this together consistently like this, they will be a great team. And I want to outline this. Something feels different this year. Something feels different. This was a quote from JC Miller, the captain after last night's game. And I don't know if you guys remember, if you followed along on the channel last year, which God bless you if you did, because man, it was not a fun time last season. But if you follow it along, after every game, JC Miller had very little to say. And when he did have something to say, it was just nonsense. It was a bunch of nonsense and it was nothing of substance, nothing you can take from, nothing you can learn from, nothing you can build off of, right? But this season, after just the first win, he outlines why it was important to come into this game and win this game the way that they did and the importance of being a New York Ranger and what the fans mean to him and the team. He said, I love the passion of the fans. When I talk about booing last season, it wasn't bringing that up as an excuse. My point was as a player, you hate that. I want nothing more than a passionate fan base. I love these fans and they deserve better, frankly, at home. And I'm just happy that we got to give them a good performance tonight, but for ourselves too. We're trying our asses off no matter what, but I think that takes a load off for the fans and for us. It's one game, but I think it went a long way coming off of the start that we had last year. And what was the narrative yesterday? What was I, what were, I was even saying it, right? Not just myself, everyone, Twitter. I'm sure you were saying it in your household, to your friends, your family. They got shut out again in a season opener. This is going to spiral out of control, right? Like it did last year. And they said, no, they scored early and they scored often at home against a good team. I was thinking to myself before the game started, my goodness, they are playing the Tampa Bay lightning tonight, Andre Vasilevsky. They could be in tight or in tough to score a goal. They could be with how things are going. And you know, the mental aspect of, oh my goodness, it's happening again, just like last year. And they got over that hump so quickly. It was so impressive to see. And they just played their game North South. They were skating hard. The third line was just getting pucks to the net. Igor was Igor. Igor scored. The vibes were insane. By the way, I didn't even mention it last night after Igor scored, obviously the players loving it. The crowd did not sit for the last two minutes of the game and they were chanting Igor. Like that's the stuff that gives you goosebumps, man. Like that is the stuff that makes you feel so good. And like the Rangers might be back and yes, it's one game, but this could be just a glimpse into, hey, this is what we want to accomplish this year. We have more weapons. We have guys like Dorothea, not to say you didn't have Panarin last year, but the vibe of the team, there's a lot of turnover and it's a new structure where, you know, this is JT second year being a captain. Things are starting to progress in a good way, I think, and they're building better habits. You can see it. They are, but they have to do this consistently because if they don't, it will be a problem. It will be a problem. So a lot of what we saw in game one, we didn't see in game two, which is good because what we saw in game one was what we saw last year, right? So it looked different last year or last night and it felt different last night. And I think that's why a lot of people are absolutely fired up tonight. Johnny Lazarus had a great video on Twitter yesterday. We were just like, the vibe was unbelievable in the building. He was talking about his dad being there and it's a great video. Go check it out on Twitter and just, you know, the vibe in the arena. But I want to bring this up from Staff Boy Stevenson. He talked about this last week, the last time that the Rangers started the season with the loss of the Bruins, followed by a win over the Lightning in the 1993-94 season. What happened in that season? The Rangers won the Stanley Cup. Now I'm not saying they're going to win the Stanley Cup this year, but I'm just saying a lot of people are telling me, Darius, you're crazy. They're not going to make the playoffs. If they play like that, they will make the playoffs. They can beat a lot of really good teams if they play like that. And they had all hands on deck. All four lines were skating. All four lines were, I don't want to use the word checking, but maybe stick checking. But everyone looked pretty good. And once the top, top guys get going and that's like Mika scored last night. But once that top line really starts cooking like they were at the end of last year, if you have a top line that can score like they were last year, you have that second line in the way that JT's going, kind of setting them up. And even with Yorkshire skating that way, I feel like that third line is going to be able to chip in as well. And then the fourth line is going to be your checking line. And maybe you get some offense from the back end as well, right? It's beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful. And I had this up on screen for a few seconds already. Igor Shturkin is the first Ranger to score from the 2014 draft class. That is insane. He's the goalie. He's the goalie. It's crazy. So it just goes to show, and again, a lot of fan reaction last night from the goal. It's all in good fun, having fun. It was a good night. Nice feeling. Now, assuming this is an emergency recall, let me know how you feel about everything last night. Let's get into some updates now on, you know, they play again. Let's keep these good vibes going. You're playing Detroit at Detroit. It's their home opener. They might be fired up, but that team stinks and that team is going through a lot right now. So take advantage of that. Now, Dylan Garan was recalled. For those of you who missed it yesterday, Jonas Garposalo is week to week. Mike Sullivan spoke about it last night as well. He said, I have no idea how he got injured, assuming it's practice, but he is injured and he's out week to week and Dylan Garan's with the team now. I mentioned in my video yesterday that Dylan Garan, as long as he's sent back to the Hartford Wolfpack within 30 days, he does not have to clear waivers. So according, uh, or assuming it's an emergency recall, and this is from Staff Boy Steven, Dylan Garan will have to pass through again to be sent down. If he plays in 10 NHL games, this is where it makes things interesting. If it's a regular recall, he has to clear waivers after 10 games or 30 days on the roster. Now I don't think this classifies to me as an emergency recall because that doesn't make sense. It's not really an emergency and they got the bullpen in the, in the system and it's not an emergency in terms of like the guy got sick with the flu. It's like a regular recall, I think. Uh, and again, we'll get, you know, more clarification on this as time goes on and how long the timeline is that court is solid though. But he's out week to week, could be two weeks, could be three weeks. To me, I think it's just a regular, you know, call up here and yeah, the thing that makes it interesting, does Dylan Garan start tonight? Do you want to start burning those games? How long do you need Dylan Garan for, right? To me, I would start him. I would start him tonight. I think this is the game that you want to start against a Red Wings team going through so much turmoil and on the scoring. I would play Dylan Garan in this game. I think I would because the boys are fired up, they're ready to go still. I would give Garan a net here instead of like we just came off of a brutal loss at the back to back. You know what I mean? Like in a week or something like that. Don't run Igor into the ground just yet, right? Like we know Dylan Garan can handle this, allow him to get this game. So I think that you burn a game already off of that. So we'll see. It's 10 games or 30 days. We'll see how long he's out for, but week to week doesn't sound like month to month. So we'll see how that progresses. One other thing from start, Messier, I wanted to point out Joe Valeno. You know, a lot of people didn't really get the signing. I thought it was kind of puzzling too. Although it looks pretty good so far. First two games, New York Ranger averaging 21 minutes of, or sorry, not averaging, that would be crazy, 21 minutes of ice time, 42 seconds of ice time so far in the first two games. He has seven hits, three blocks, 10 face-offs, one, and a face-off percentage of 55%, fourth in the NHL, but of course we haven't played yet. But really good numbers from Joe Valeno so far. So that's really encouraging for the fourth line as well. And you know, Joe Valeno over the course of his career can put up some points, right? Like a couple of years ago, 28 points. Hasn't scored yet in two games with the Rangers or put up any points. Usually a minus player, which is not great. Don't love to see that, but can chip in for some production. And hey, if he's just doing the little things right so far and they're managing his ice time, which is up around, you know, 15 minutes, it says right now, which is, I don't think that's right. But according to Snark Messier, you know, if they manage his ice time, everything should be okay. And if he continues to do the little things like hitting, blocking shots, and winning face-offs, I don't care how many points he puts up. Those are valuable, you know, things to do for this team because you're going to need them over the course of the season. So I'm glad that he's producing in some way already this season. So that's good. Based off of a, you know, puzzling signing where we're like, Joe Valeno, especially after all the good that Sam Carrick did the last couple of years. Now, you know, a lot of people are talking about like N.Y.R. Lewis. Laughing Gabe looked really good last night, right? And I wanted to actually play this clip of, not Gabe Perreault, Gabe Perreault scoring last night, great deflection by the way, but of Alexi Lafreniere because when he is skating, he is great. And, you know, Schmitz pinched against the wrong line that led to a 2-on-0, but he's such a strong skater, he recovered and applied great back pressure. And that's the other thing about Schmitz, man, he looked great too. He was a plus 3. So much to like for the Rangers last night, like so much went right. And like I mentioned, I've mentioned in videos before, when Alexi Lafreniere gets skating like this, I want to see him buzzing a little bit more. I want to see him buzzing more consistently. I want to see him buzzing over the course of 84 games. And that continues tonight against the Detroit Red Wings. And let me know in the comments, would you play Igor Shostakovich again tonight? Last night, 24 saves, one goal against, he had a save percentage of 960, which was awesome, in last night's game specifically, and he scored a goal. So would you play Igor Shostakovich again tonight? I think I would give it to Dylan Grant. Let me know how you feel in the comments below. And I'm sure we're in for a lineup change. I do wonder if Matt Renfee comes into the lineup. I wonder if they use Scott Morrow tonight. We'll see what happens with that, because they are carrying a couple extra defensemen, and it is back-to-back. I think it would be interesting to see if Mike Sullivan utilizes them this early on. Because it's early in the season, first back-to-back, in theory, you could run the same lineup. But you know the way coaches are, we'll see what happens.