![\"Alexis](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2239435351.jpg\")
Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re skates against the Boston Bruins during the first period at the TD Garden during a preseason game on October 4, 2025 in Boston, Massachusetts. Getty Images<\/p>\nPITTSBURGH \u2014 The first Rangers goal of the 2025-26 season belonged to Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re on Thursday night in Buffalo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was a greasy game-opening goal that came on a rebound of an Artemi Panarin shot just under 12 minutes into the first period, when Lafreni\u00e8re battled through some traffic to tuck the puck past Sabres goalie Alex Lyon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was good to get one early in the game,\u201d Lafreni\u00e8re said after the 4-0 victory. \u201cGood play. Saw Bread (Panarin) going up ice and just trying to get in front. I got a good bounce, so it was good to get one.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The goal was No. 93 in Lafreni\u00e8re\u2019s career, which tied him with Alex Kovalev for fourth most by a Ranger before age 24. In the 85 regular-season games in which Lafreni\u00e8re has scored, the Rangers own a 69-11-5 record.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re skates against the Boston Bruins during the first period at the TD Garden during a preseason game on October 4, 2025 in Boston, Massachusetts. Getty Images<\/p>\n
The line of Panarin, Lafreni\u00e8re and Vincent Trocheck had already put together a much stronger performance in Game 2 than in Game 1, but Trocheck left the contest with an upper-body injury in the second period and wasn\u2019t able to return.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If Trocheck needs to miss time, one of either Juuso Parssinen or Jonny Brodzinski will be inserted into the lineup. Both are capable of playing center, but head coach Mike Sullivan might prefer to move Mika Zibanejad back to the middle because it\u2019s a top-six spot that needs to be filled.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Alexis](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2239605731.jpg\")
Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re celebrates his first period goal against the Buffalo Sabres during an NHL game on October 09, 2025 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Parssinen, who signed a two-year deal with the Rangers this past offseason, might get the nod first, but Brodzinski would give Sullivan more flexibility as someone who can also play on the wing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRead the expert take on the Blueshirts\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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It\u2019ll most likely depend on how Sullivan wants to rearrange his top six without Trocheck.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Rangers\u2019 penalty kill is 5-for-5 to start the season, including a 4-for-4 showing in Buffalo. In away games since 2023-24, the Blueshirts own the third-best penalty kill percentage in the NHL at 82.1.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s contest against the Penguins marks the first of the Rangers\u2019 12 back-to-back sets this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since his first game back with the Rangers on Feb. 1, 2025, J.T. Miller has a team-leading 13 multipoint games, tied for the second most in the NHL over that span.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 The first Rangers goal of the 2025-26 season belonged to Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re on Thursday night in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":293953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[66395,1302,293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-293952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-alexis-lafreniere","9":"tag-new-york-rangers","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115354090198795392","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}