What is driving the Rangers’ early-season success?

Expectations were not overly high for the New York Rangers entering this season, as general manager Chris Drury spent the offseason in what could be described as an active holding pattern.

Drury moved on from an impactful veteran like center Vincent Trocheck, but he solidified his defense by adding Marcus Pettersson and Sean Durzi, also adding a key goalscorer in winger Pavel Dorofeyev.

After two straight years outside the Stanley Cup Playoff picture, including a last-place finish in the Metropolitan Division a season ago, the Rangers looked destined for another year of frustration. A season-opening shutout loss to the Boston Bruins only seemed to confirm those concerns.

Instead, New York responded. The Rangers have gone 3-0 in their past three contests, outscoring opponents 11-3, and they’re winning without any unsustainably hot performances from any individual player on the roster.

On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by former NHL video coach Steve Peters to discuss what is driving the turnaround for the Rangers in comparison to the ugly start they got off to last year.

Tyler Yaremchuk: You said last week that you kind of like the Rangers more than the general public, the general hockey public did. So early on in the season, what’s stood out to you for the Rangers?

Steve Peters: It’s that mix of veteran guys, Zibanejad, Miller, some guys we’ve seen with New York, that have a lot to prove by the way, without Panarin in the lineup. But it’s the young guys. It’s Perreault. Lafreniere’s got to take another step this year. Tye Kartye, Will Cuylle, they’ve got a lot of guys that need to step forward. So it’s very similar to what you’re seeing in Pittsburgh, but there’s just something special going on in New York, and it starts on the back end. Their goaltender, Shesterkin, has been absolutely lights out as the season gets going… Dorofeyev’s gonna be a big part of this team and how he can add to the offense… 20 power play goals last season. He could be a big factor. He hasn’t been yet. Durzi on the back end is going to take off some of that offense away from Fox. He’s going to be another right-hand shot that’s going to be able to get pucks to the net and be another guy who can get pucks up the ice quickly… Gabe Perreault, the 21-year-old, 27 points last year, he’s got three points in four games already, and Cuylle, big body, physical… after those hard forechecks, he gets puck to the net. He’s had back-to-back 20-goal seasons.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…