The first month of the Gerard Gallant era produced one of the best starts in New York Rangers’ history, especially on the road.
The Rangers will seek their sixth straight road win Tuesday night and look to remain unbeaten in Canada when they visit the Vancouver Canucks.
Gallant succeeded David Quinn after last season when the Rangers struggled down the stretch of the 56-game season. After previously coaching the Columbus Blue Jackets, Florida Panthers and Vegas Golden Knights, Gallant has the Rangers at 6-2-1 through the first month of the season.
New York’s 13 points are its most through the first month of the season since the team went 7-2-2 in the first month of the 2015-16 season after playing in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals the previous season.
New York added more points on Sunday when it opened its second four-game trip of the season with a 3-1 win over the Seattle Kraken. It was New York’s fifth straight road win and gave the team five road wins in the first month of the season for the first time in team history.
New York’s five road wins are tied for the NHL lead with the Calgary Flames, whom they face Saturday. While the Flames have 29 goals, the Rangers have 22 goals — the fewest among the top eight teams in the Eastern Conference through Sunday.
New York is on one of its best road streaks in team history thanks to the ability to win close games and get timely goaltending. The Rangers have yet to score more than three goals in any road win but own 10 goals in the third period or in overtime after defenseman Adam Fox scored the tiebreaking goal with 7:50 remaining in the third after getting outshot 13-2 in the second period.
Chris Kreider also scored his seventh goal and Igor Shesterkin made 31 saves to improve to 4-0 with a .970 save percentage and an 0.99 goals-against average in his four road games.
“I thought we had a great first 10 minutes,” Gallant said. “That was a great road period in this building, and then the next 30 minutes was awful. And Igor stole the show.”
The Canucks are 0-3-0 at home after going 3-2-1 on a season-opening, six-game trip. It is their worst start at home since beginning 2015-16 with five straight home losses (0-3-2).
Vancouver’s first three home losses have been by one goal. The team has allowed the first goal in each game and trailed by two goals in two of those games.
“I think we’ve been doing really good things defensively and playing well that way,” Vancouver captain Bo Horvat said. “But at the end of the day, we have to start putting the puck on net and bearing down and burying our chances.”
On Saturday, the Canucks allowed two power-play goals and were seven seconds away from getting blanked before Brock Boeser scored in a 2-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers in a game coach Travis Green said was a better showing than a 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday and a 3-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday.
“When I say it’s a step in the right direction, I’m not trying to alleviate wins or losses, but I’m also trying to be honest with our group,” Green said. “But we want to win for our fans. We want to win for our team.”
The teams will meet for the first time since Vancouver’s 2-1 home win on Jan. 4, 2020, gave them a third straight win over the Rangers.
–Field Level Media
