The New York Rangers are on fire after winning their last nine games and Quebecer Alexis Lafrenière has been able to contribute to his team's success, which is well illustrated by his statistics.
Unless he gets injured, the striker will finish the season with the best numbers of his career. Author of a double in Thursday's 5-1 win over the New Jersey Devils, he scored 16 goals and 19 assists for 35 points, four fewer than his personal best last year. It should also be noted that number 13 needed 81 games to reach 39 points, while he has played 57 games so far.
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If he keeps up the pace and the Blueshirts continue their success, Lafrenière will reach the 50-point plateau playing on the right wing of the second trio complemented by Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck. Beyond the offense, however, it is the former Rimouski Océanic's overall play in the QMJHL that is drawing attention. According to some, including Captain Jacob Trouba, the progress is significant.
“During practice, you can see it when he controls the puck and does those types of maneuvers,” the defenseman told the New York Post, referring to the goal his teammate scored on a breakaway in the second on Thursday Third scored. He shows up at every training camp and gets everyone's eyes wide open. I know it caught my attention this year. He has the talent and the skills. He's starting to feel good and is playing confidently. It’s good to see.”
Lafrenière was used for more than 18 minutes against the Devils, stopping a four-game streak without a goal. However, he had two assists in Sunday's game at MetLife Stadium against the New York Islanders. In addition, he is more threatening in the opponent's cage these days, having taken ten shots in his last three duels.
The team to beat?
Together, head coach Peter Laviolette's troops sent a message to the rest of the National League. As a leader in the metropolitan area, you can rely on key elements in fairly good condition. Panarin has 10 points in his last games, Chris Kreider is just one goal away from 30 and Igor Shesterkin has stopped at least 40 shots in each of his last three games.
“When we’re at our best, we play fast and physical,” Trouba told NHL.com. If we try to slow the game down and run too much on the horizontal axis, we will stay on our heels. We play a physical style and play hard. It's not really pleasant to play against us because we also have guys who are capable of putting the ball in the net.
The Rangers will visit the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.