Alexis Lafreniere's breakout season continuing with strong postseason for Rangers
Alexis Lafreniere of the Rangers shoots the puck during the third period against the Hurricanes in Game 2 of the second round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Rangers are a win-now team. Every person in their organization understands that, and that is as it should be for a team with this kind of star power and payroll.
It is part of what has made their quick start on the road to their first Stanley Cup since 1994 both exciting and exacting.
But this process can continue no longer than another month or so, and even if the Rangers win the Cup, the NHL will insist come October that they start another season.
When that season begins, eight of the 12 forwards expected to dress on Monday night for Game 5 of a second-round playoff series against the Hurricanes will be at least 30 years old.
Hence the win-now thing.
But even though the Rangers rely heavily on veterans, a subplot in these playoffs is that they also have strong young talent ready to keep this thing going.
Exhibit A: Alexis Lafreniere, the previously much-worried-about No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft.
Lafreniere is in his fourth NHL season, but he still is only 22, and for much of this season and doubly so during the playoffs, a light seems to have gone on for him.
He arguably was the best skater on the team for the first four games of the Carolina series, and inarguably was just that in Game 4 on Saturday night.
Lafreniere cleverly banked in the tying goal off Carolina goaltender Frederik Andersen in the third period of what later became a 4-3 loss.
But to Rangers coach Peter Laviolette, that was a small reward for all that Lafreniere did.
“I thought he could have had three or four goals,” Laviolette said. “You knew it was coming. I bumped him on the bench and said, ‘It’s coming.’ So it’s nice to continue to see him take steps in the playoffs and be a difference maker.”
Lafreniere had four goals and six assists in the first eight playoff games after scoring a career-high 28 goals with a career-high 29 assists in the regular season.
What is going on there?
"My skating got a little better and it's more so I think just trying to get used to the pace of the game," Lafreniere told NHL.com before the team left Raleigh on Sunday after Game 4.
“If you think faster, you're going to move a little faster. The game is so fast right now you have to be able to move well."
Lafreniere is on his third coach in four seasons and seems to have clicked with Laviolette, the first to trust him with a regular top-six spot.
He has thrived on a line with Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck.
Teammates have hailed what Lafreniere has done, including his contemporaries.
Take Will Cuylle, who is in his first season as a regular after making his NHL debut last year, is four months younger than Lafreniere and was drafted in the second round in 2020.
Cuylle said he began watching the Rangers closely after he was drafted, no one more closely than his draft classmate.
“I think he’s just progressed more and more every year and just keeps impressing us,” said Cuylle, who scored his first playoff goal in Game 4. “Even as this season has gone on, from the start of the year to now, he’s so much better, and you can see it on the ice, his confidence, making plays with the puck.”
Cuylle said that even though Lafreniere still is young, “He kind of feels like, not a veteran, but he’s been here quite a while and he just keeps getting better and better. It’s fun to watch.”
Defenseman K’Andre Miller, 24, also is in his fourth season in the league, and is another member of the generation the Rangers hope can sustain their current success.
“Ever since I got here, we’ve had a good mixture of young guys and older guys who have been through the league and know how to do things around here,” Miller told Newsday before Game 5.
“Obviously, we lean on those big guys, the older guys, to kind of show us the way. I think our younger guys kind of just grab onto the rope and do the same thing. So it’s been fun.”
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
