Peter Laviolette excited about Rangers' home opener

The Rangers had already played their regular-season opening game last Thursday in Buffalo, of course, and that went quite well. On Monday, they got to do it again, sort of, when they played their first game of the regular season at home in Madison Square Garden, against the visiting Arizona Coyotes.

“It’s the home opener,’’ coach Peter Laviolette said following his team’s morning skate at The Garden. “Everybody’s excited about that, excited to get back here in our building, to get going with a home game.’’

For Laviolette, who became the 37th coach in franchise history when he was hired over the summer to replace Gerard Gallant, Monday’s game would be his first regular season game at the Garden behind the Blueshirts’ bench.

“I think it's the franchise. I think it's the city. It's the history of the building and the organization, and it's New York City,’’ Laviolette said of why Monday’s game meant so much to him. “There's a ‘flash’ when you talk about New York City, and the New York Rangers, and Madison Square Garden… There's a brightness to it. So, that makes it exciting.’’

“I think everybody's always excited for your home opener,’’ captain Jacob Trouba said. “It's always a great atmosphere, and we, I think liked our opening game (a 5-1 win in Buffalo) and it kind of got away from the last one (a 5-3 loss Saturday in Columbus to the Blue Jackets), so we can get back on track and do it in front of our home crowd.’’

Laviolette didn’t know, or wasn’t willing to say, whether defenseman Ryan Lindgren was expected to be in the lineup Monday. Lindgren was a last-minute scratch for Saturday’s game with what the team said was an upper-body injury, even though he took part in Saturday’s morning skate. Lindgren took part in Monday’s morning skate as well, pairing with his regular defense partner, Adam Fox, but Laviolette said the 25-year-old Minnesotan would be a game-time decision.

As far as their opponent Monday, the Coyotes, they appear to be a much improved squad over the team that went 28-40-14 last season. They entered Monday’s game 1-0, following their 4-3 shootout win over the Devils Friday in Newark. The Rangers entered the game 1-1.

“They've done a good job of tracking and getting good young players in there,’’ Laviolette said of Arizona. “There was definitely a rebuild process that went on with that organization, and that doesn't happen overnight. I think you're starting to see the pieces now come into play and with that, like any team that, you find that there's good young players that are really impactful on the league. They have some really good young players now. (And) I also think that – it's such a cliche, but there's just there are no easy games. The minute you think the game is going to be easy, you are gonna get slapped around pretty good. And I think that they are a team that's on the rise there.’’

The Rangers were hoping to tighten up their defense against the Coyotes, after Laviolette said they looked “a little loose in front of our net’’ against the Blue Jackets.

Trouba said the team is still familiarizing itself with the new offensive and defensive systems Laviolette has installed since training camp began last month.

“There's reads that you would have made in the past, that now, you’re making a different decision,’’ Trouba said. “So I think those are things you kind of got to work through, similar to the preseason games, where I was saying you make the mistakes, and then you kind of recognize this mistake, you can see it, what it feels like, what it looks like. And then you can make the adjustment from there. I think it'll be a little more of that. And I think it's going to get better as we go.’’

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.