Rangers acing another test tops key takeaways from 4-1 win over Lightning

These aren’t exactly final exams — those will come later in the season and, hopefully, during the Stanley Cup Playoffs — but the New York Rangers aced yet another test Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, when they out-classed the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1.

Make that two wins in less than two weeks over the Lightning, who are considered one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference again this season. Yet, the Rangers outscored them 9-2 in their pair of head-to-head meetings in the season’s first month. And make no mistake, those scores are quite indicative of how much better the Rangers were in this one and the first meeting Oct. 1, also at MSG.

And that says a lot because the Lightning (4-2-0) are actually quite good. They’re undefeated in four games against the rest of the League, bookended by losses to the Rangers.

New York looks like a completely different team this season. Again, the Rangers (6-2-0) put the opposition on its heels, taking the lead right out of the gate Tuesday. This time the red-hot Alexis Lafreniere buried one from out front just 62 seconds into play after some terrific grunt work by Tye Kartye in the corner and behind the Lightning net.

That pair hooked up again at 12:47 when Kartye’s alley-oop pass which traveled almost 100 feet in the air, landed perfectly for Lafreniere, who got behind Anthony Cirelli and Victor Hedman — that’s a pair of two-time Stanley Cup winners — to score his second goal of the period and seventh in the past five games.

Not only that, Lafreniere became the League’s leading goal scorer with that tally.

Will Cuylle scored his third goal in the past two games and racked up a season-high 11 hits in absolute tour-de-force performance. Mika Zibanejad played a terrific defensive game and was rewarded with an empty-net goal. The fans chanted Dylan Garand’s name, and the new No. 1 netminder calmly stopped 25 of 26 shots.

Perhaps the biggest difference year over year is that the Rangers appear so much more structured in all three zones, particularly in their defensive end. There’s no panic with this group. Where in the past you expected something bad to happen at any moment, now it’s the exact opposite. You expect good things to happen, good results.

It’s clear that the Rangers have better players in the lineup and have more buy-in to a total team game. They’re also much faster, win more puck battles, and appear mentally tougher. That’s a good formula, a winning one, even without their best player, injured goalie Igor Shesterkin, for the rest of the season.

The tests will keep coming, especially since Shesterkin’s not coming back. But perhaps soon enough,the storyline will be about other teams looking to how they play against the Rangers as their test, and not necessarily the other way around.

Key takeaways after Rangers win again at home, 4-1 over Lightning

Homebodies

Talk about turning it around on home ice. After their well-chronicled struggles at The Garden last season — their 14 home wins were fewest in a full NHL season since winning 13 times at MSG in 2003-04 — the Rangers are a perfect 5-0-0 at home so far this season.

“I know that was a goal that a lot of us had in mind here going to this season and these guys were determined to get off on the right foot. I couldn’t be more proud of them,” coach Mike Sullivan said postgame about the improved play at home.

It’s the third time in franchise history that the Rangers won each of their first five home games to begin a season. A year ago, the Rangers started out 0-6-1 at MSG, and didn’t win their first home game until Nov. 10. Their fifth home victory? That was Dec. 20.

The Rangers are outscoring the opposition 24-8 so far this season at The Garden.

The worm has officially turned.

Tough love

Sullivan explained Tuesday morning that it’s the coaching staff’s job to help Pavel Dorofeyev assimilate with his new team and “help him capture his best game.” But that doesn’t mean tough love isn’t part of the equation.

For the second straight game, Sullivan took Dorofeyev off the top power-play unit after starting the ight on it. Gabe Perreault took the struggling winger’s spot on New York’s final two power plays against the Lightning.

But that’s not all. Dorofeyev also was skipped over several times at 5-on-5 in favor of Oliver Bjorkstrand. Part of that could be Sullivan wanting to get Bjorkstrand some extra shifts since he didn’t get much run with the fourth line. But it certainly was most reflective of Dorofeyev going a sixth straight game without a goal coupled with a defensive lapse which helped lead to the Lightning’s only goal of the night late in the first period.

It’s not exactly how Dorofeyev wanted his Rangers tenure to start out, following the blockbuster summer trade brought him over from the Vegas Golden Knights and the subsequent signing of a seven-year, $77 million contract with the Blueshirts.

Dominant at the dot

Miller was sitting on a face-off winning percentage of just under 50 percent as of a couple games ago. But he absolutely crushed it at the dot these past two games.

The Rangers captain won 16 of 20 face-offs (a whopping 80 percent) vs, the Lightning, two nights after he won 12 of 16 (75 percent) in a 6-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks. That’s called domination. And it’s also more in line with what Miller did last season, when he was third in the NHL with a 61.5 percent win rate, and throughout his career (55.0 percent).

Miller, like Dorofeyev, has one goal in eight games. But the difference is that the 33-year-old veteran is finding multiple other ways to help the Rangers win games, including his outstanding success in the face-off circle.

Rempe returns

After being a healthy scratch the previous six games, Matt Rempe returned to the Rangers lineup for the first time since their season-opening loss in Boston against the Bruins. Though Sullivan didn’t deploy his fourth line all that often, Rempe was able to mark his mark on this game. The towering forward was credited five hits on six shifts with only 3:43 TOI.

Rempe also engaged in his first fight since Oct. 23, 2025, when he mangled his thumb and short-circuited his own season in a throwdown with Ryan Reaves of the San Jose Sharks. This time he dropped the gloves with Tampa Bay’s Jeff Viel, a super-pest who’s nine inches shorter than Rempe.

Viel landed a few quick lefts before Rempe set himself and took over the fight with a string of big right hands. Rempe cut his left hand and needed to go to the dressing room for repairs, but was back on the bench in the second period, though he and the fourth line only had two shifts in the final two periods of the game.

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