{"id":325732,"date":"2025-10-23T05:48:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T05:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/325732\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T05:48:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T05:48:15","slug":"alexis-lafreniere-will-cuylle-off-to-slow-rangers-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/325732\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexis Lafreniere, Will Cuylle off to slow Rangers start"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re has one goal in his first eight games of the season. The same for Will Cuylle.<\/p>\n

For a duo that combined to score 37 goals last season \u2014 with more expected this season from the young players \u2014 it\u2019s been a disappointing start.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s at least part of the reason the Rangers have been so inconsistent on offense in the early part of this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s another level to their game,\u2019\u2019 head coach Mike Sullivan said of Lafreni\u00e8re and Cuylle following Wednesday\u2019s practice in Tarrytown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Lafreni\u00e8ere, who turned 24 earlier this month, it\u2019s part of a longer regression after scoring 28 goals two seasons ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust keep going, keep shooting,\u201d Lafreni\u00e8re said of his mentality despite the lack of goals. \u201cI\u2019m getting chances; they\u2019re not going in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AlexisAlexis Lafreni\u00e8re skates with the puck against during the Rangers\u2019 road loss to the Maple Leafs on Oct.16, 2025. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Lafreni\u00e8re trails only Mika Zibanejad with 22 shots on goal for the Rangers, while Cuylle is sixth on the team with 18.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the discussions we\u2019ve had is to try to encourage them to get to the interior a little bit more,\u2019\u2019 Sullivan said of the efforts to spark scoring with Lafreni\u00e8re and Cuylle. \u201cIt\u2019s more of a mindset of trying to get inside the dots, whether it be going to the net \u2014 and staying at the net \u2014 or off the rush.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sullivan wants them to put themselves in better spots to have more opportunities to take advantage of mistakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re talented enough to have the ability to make that next play and score,\u2019\u2019 Sullivan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NewWill Cuylle skates during warmups before a recent game. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Sullivan briefly got on his team during a power-play drill in the second half of Wednesday\u2019s lengthy practice.<\/p>\n

He said that was unrelated to the message he delivered to his players for several minutes at center ice following practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was different,\u2019\u2019 Sullivan said. \u201cThat was between me and the team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRead the expert take on the Blueshirts\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Larry Brooks’ Inside the Rangers, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Of the outburst during the power play, Sullivan said, \u201cWe\u2019re trying to get better on both sides of special teams. Our penalty kill has to pay more attention to detail.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wants the penalty kill to be as strong as the power play, even in workouts.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I think there\u2019s a tendency, for whatever reason, in practice in special teams for the penalty kill to maybe give the power play more of an opportunity to have success,\u2019\u2019 Sullivan said. \u201cWe look at it differently. We want our penalty kill to compete extremely hard against our power play and push them to be at their very best.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

For a power-play unit that hasn\u2019t produced much, Sullivan would like them to have a more aggressive approach when it comes to getting pucks on net in order to make something happen.<\/p>\n

Igor Shesterkin continues to lead the NHL in goals against average (1.17) and save percentage (.957).<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s one of the elite goalies in the league,\u2019\u2019 Sullivan said. \u201cAs a coach, sometimes you look at the net and just his presence alone, there\u2019s not a lot to shoot at.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he credited the defense for aiding in Shesterkin\u2019s strong start.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it goes hand-in-hand,\u2019\u2019 Sullivan said, noting the team has done a solid job of limiting shot quality and second-chance opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re has one goal in his first eight games of the season. The same for Will Cuylle.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":325733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[66395,66396,1302,293,62,67,132,68,1300],"class_list":{"0":"post-325732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-alexis-lafreniere","9":"tag-mike-sullivan-nhl","10":"tag-new-york-rangers","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-will-cuylle"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115421912498065931","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325732","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=325732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}