The New York crowd has high expectations for 18-year-old Kaapo Kakko, the new acquisition who has now made his debut in the NHL.
But they have to wait for goals from Finland's big future promise. In the premiere at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers won 6-4 against Winnipeg, without Kakko being involved in any of the goals. He got three shots on goal, none of them really dangerous.
- I was tagged before the game. It was a good start to the season, the team played well. Hopefully I'll score goals next time, the debutant told media after the match.
Zibanejad shone
Instead, two blue-yellow Rangers veterans and two new acquisitions stepped into the center of events. Henrik Lundqvist, with his 43 saves, was able to secure his 450th NHL victory in his career, and Mika Zibanejad showed the team the way with one goal and three goals. The Swede thereby surpassed Rangers' hot new acquisition of US back star Jacob Trouba and Russian scoring machine Artemij Panarin.
After the match, Zibanejad was more pleased with the home crowd's support than the team's introduction.
- It was tough to start with two early expulsions. But we worked our way into the match and it looked better the longer it went. And you could see that the interaction became better across all chains, he said.
Zibanejad was welcomed by coach David Quinn, who, in addition to paying tribute to his points king in the premiere, noted that the team was more effective than acting.
"It was definitely not Picasso, that's for sure, but we found the way to victory and in the end that's what is important," he said, according to nhl.com.
The King of the score netted immediately
In Tampa, visiting Florida was alerted to Nikita Kutjerov's nose for goals. But what helped it.
It was only about six minutes before last season's points king in the NHL had done 1-0, from the left drawing circle in numerical superiority.
The goal showed the way for Tampa Bay - last season's winningest team - which finally took a comfortable derby victory by 5-2. Victor Hedman, just like last season, was an important cog in the defense and also provided an assist, to Pat Maroons 4-2 in the middle of the third period.
In addition to Mika Zibanejad, the quartet Rasmus Dahlin, Linus Wallmark, Viktor Arvidsson and Filip Forsberg also found the goal - and everyone contributed to their team's premiere victories.
Dahlin put the final score 3-1 in Buffalo's victory against Pittsburgh and Wallberg started the goal in Carolina's home win against Montréal, 4-3 after penalties. Arvidsson and Forsberg scored Nashville's last two goals as the team defeated Minnesota 5-2.