All of a sudden, the Rangers are doing everything that they couldn’t do earlier in the season, that put them in this spot — the first stage of a retool, the era of The Letter 2.0 — in the first place.
All of a sudden, Alexis Lafrenière resembles what a $52.15 million player and former No. 1 overall pick is supposed to look like and the Blueshirts are stringing wins together.
The latest unfolded Tuesday night, when Lafrenière potted three more goals, including one with 2:18 left to cap the second hat trick of his career, during their 4-0 win over the Flames to give him 13 points in his last nine games.
Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
It’s the first time Lafrenière has scored in consecutive games since November and the first time he’s had three or more goals across a two-game stretch since the 2024 playoffs.
And with their latest win, giving the Blueshirts points in six of seven games since the Olympic break ended, they’ve also won consecutive home games in regulation for the first time all season.
Conor Sheary also scored his second goal of the season and his first since returning from a lengthy injury absence last month.
Jonathan Quick recorded his first shutout since October and picked up just his second win since November, stopping all 21 Calgary shots.
At this point, it’s all a bit too late to impact the current iteration of these Blueshirts. They’re still stuck in the basement of the Eastern Conference even with their recent surge.
That’s what turned this game into one featuring two teams whose names will pop up when lottery combinations matter as opposed to the playoffs.
But for one night, the latest in a recent stretch full of good ones for them, the Blueshirts provided reasons for optimism in future seasons.
Lafrenière gave the Rangers the lead late in the first period on the power play, when a Mika Zibanejad shot from the point deflected off the winger and in.
For most of the man-advantage, there’d been groans for the Rangers to get a shot off. Then, when they finally did, Vincent Trocheck’s stick shattered. Lafrenière ensured they still capitalized, though.
Sheary added to the Rangers’ lead in the second frame off a strange sequence, when a long pass bounced off the boards behind the net, went through Noah Laba’s legs and ended up right on the stick of Tye Kartye — who threaded a pass to Sheary.
The Blueshirts’ third goal featured some nifty passing, too, with Gabe Perreault opting for the extra movement and feeding a wide-open Lafrenière near the post.
These were the goals, the puck movement, the production — and, most of all, the wins — that evaded the Rangers earlier in the year. But with just a month of games left before an offseason of uncertainty and more roster movement arrives, they found a way to extend their best stretch of the year again.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
