The New York Rangers face the Arizona Coyotes with both teams heading in opposite directions to start the season. The Rangers have a 4-3-2 record and are in the middle of a competitive Metropolitan Division. The Coyotes meanwhile have a 2-4-1 record and opened up their new home arena with an overtime loss. Both teams are looking to improve in their divisions and the upcoming game should be a good one as a result.
The Rangers are off to a promising start to the season but hope the offense improves, scoring only 2.75 goals per game. Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, and Vincent Trocheck have scored 10 goals and 16 assists while defenseman Adam Fox is adding two goals and five assists from the point but the rest of the offense has struggled. The hope is that Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko can step up as they play a pivotal role in the forward unit but have only scored three goals and two assists on the season thus far.
The offense hopes to improve but the defense has let the Rangers down, allowing 3.13 goals per game including 14 goals in their last four games. Jacob Trouba and Adam Fox have combined for 1.1 defensive point shares and 35 blocked shots to lead the top two pairings but the rest of the unit has struggled and is allowing opponents to carry the puck into the offensive zone and find open shots on the net. Furthermore, backup goaltender Jaroslav Halak has been awful in the net with a .867 save percentage and a 3.69 goals-against average on 83 shots