Daily Faceoff Morning Report — 10/12/22
The Daily Faceoff Morning Report will be released on weekdays, recapping the key news and events from the day before.
We will highlight injuries affecting today’s games, hot streaks, cold streaks, and anything relevant for everyone from the casual hockey fan to the Fantasy Hockey grinder.
Rangers Open Season with Statement Win over Lightning, but lose Kravtsov
It was a battle of the goaltenders as predicted Tuesday night as Vezina winners Igor Shesterkin (.962 SV%) and Andrei Vasilevskiy (.923 SV%) showed no signs of offseason rust in the only early game of the night. Centre Mika Zibanejad was an unstoppable force for the Rangers, leading all skaters with nine shots and scoring both a short-handed and powerplay goal, which also turned out to be the game-winner. The 29-year-old was just inches from scoring the first hat trick of 2022-23 as his late shot towards an open net rang post in the game’s dying seconds. Unfortunately, it wasn’t all good news for New York, as they lost 22-year-old Vitali Kravtsov to an upper-body injury in the first period after a mix-up with Victor Hedman.
Kravtsov to the locker room after this: pic.twitter.com/owDVJG1Pk0
— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) October 12, 2022The Lightning were only able to crack Shesterkin once, as it took a Steven Stamkos powerplay goal to get Tampa on the board. Ultimately the Lightning fell 3-1, but it could have been worse if not for Vasilevskiy. NaturalStatTrick had the expected goals at 5.8 to 2.8 in favour of the Rangers.
Stone Steals Late Win in Frantic Showdown as Vegas tops the Kings in Opener
Jonathan Quick’s 47 saves were not enough to keep Mark Stone from securing the Vegas Golden Knights’ victory with just 26 seconds left in the third period in a 4-3 final. It was a back-and-forth battle Tuesday in Los Angeles as the Kings and Golden Knights traded goals throughout the evening.
Gabe Vilardi kicked off the scoring for Los Angeles, and the 23-year-old forward led all Kings’ players with two points (1G / 1A) while being matched on the opposite side by William Karlsson’s two-point (1G / 1A) performance. Adrian Kempe and Arthur Kaliyev added goals for the Kings as they ultimately came up short in the battle of West Coast teams. Vegas also spread out their scoring as Jonathan Marchessault, Jack Eichel, and Stone registered goals. Alex Pietrangelo and Chandler Stephenson each enjoyed two-assist nights. Quick’s strong losing performance was matched by rookie goaltender Logan Thompson’s 27-save (.900 SV%) win at the other end.
Fantasy Hockey Standouts
- Igor Shesterkin (G) allowed one goal on 26 shots to lead the New York Rangers to their first victory of the year. He looks like the Vezina-winning goaltender we all got to enjoy in 2022-21.
- Mika Zibanejad (C) scored both a short-handed and game-winning powerplay goal alongside nine shots and a plus-1 rating on the night. He is coming out of the gates hot after collecting 81 points (29G / 52A) in 81 games in 2021-22.
- K’Andre Miller (D) logged an impressive 23:13 TOI while collecting an assist and three hits in the Rangers’ opening game.
- Steven Stamkos (C/RW) scored his first goal of the season on the powerplay while also amassing five shots leading. He is looking to duplicate his success from 2021-22 where he scored 42 goals and a career-high 106 points.
- William Karlsson (C) scored a powerplay goal and added an assist in 17:20 TOI.
- Jack Eichel (C) looked back to his elite form of previous seasons, registering seven shots on his way to his first goal of the 2022-23 season.
- Jonathan Marchessault (LW/RW) scored his first goal of the season while leading all skaters in both hits (5) and shots (7).
- Gabriel Vilardi (C) led all Kings skaters with a goal and an assist while playing the sixth-fewest minutes (14:15). The 2017 first-round pick entered Tuesday with 37 points in 89 career games.
- Jonathan Quick (G) stopped 47 of 51 shots (.922 SV%) while earning the undeserved loss for the Kings Tuesday. Quick will be in for a long year if he continues to face an incredibly high volume of shots like tonight on a nightly basis.