The Rangers preserved their perfect outdoor record on the backs of marquee players.
Mika Zibanejad posted the first-ever hat trick in a Winter Classic game and set a record with five points.
With two goals and an assist, Artemi Panarin upped his career outdoor game totals to seven to tie the record for the most in NHL history.
Vincent Trocheck was a menacing 53.9 percent from the faceoff dots to go along with his two-assist performance.
And goalie Igor Shesterkin made 36 saves to become one of just nine goalies with multiple outdoor victories.
The high-profile and much-needed win, however, does not happen without Alexis Lafrenière.
Lafrenière was seeing the play and consistently executing it to perfection all night. He had a hand in the first three Rangers goals and was active around the net. It resulted in the first three-assist game of Lafrenière’s career and tied the record for the most helpers in an outdoor NHL game.
“Out there, he has unbelievable skill,” Zibanejad said of Lafrenière. “The first one, great play by this guy right here [Panarin]. It’s a good breakout, and obviously a great pass by Laf. I thought he was going [Friday night]. I thought all the lines were going and had some jump. It was good for us.”
The Rangers need the Lafrenière who showed up in Miami to show up more than just once in a blue moon.
While he is far from the only forward whom the team needs more from, Lafrenière has had a long run of top six and power-play opportunities so far this season.
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He has failed to register a point in 28 of 43 games this season. In approximately 34 percent of the campaign, Lafrenière hasn’t had a single shot on goal.
Too often Lafrenière, the organization’s first-overall pick in 2020, fades to the background.
As he proved Friday night, the 24-year-old can play a major role in separating the Rangers from the competition. The Rangers are going to need much more of that if they hope to return to the playoffs.
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“I thought our best players were our very best players tonight,” head coach Mike Sullivan said. “They contributed on both sides of the puck. They play in all the key situations. The special teams were a big part of it. We got timely goals from our power play. I thought our penalty kill did a great job. We have a three-goal lead; that’s a scary lead in today’s game. There’s a lot of three-goal leads that disappear in today’s game. Because, to a certain extent, you’re battling human nature. Because human nature wants to exhale, when you get a little bit of a lead like that with a lot of hockey to play. It’s a constant battle against human nature to continue to try to play with the intensity, the level of purpose that you need to.
“I thought the part of the game that I was really happy about was after they scored the power-play goal to make it 3-1. That next 4-5 minutes leading up to the power-play goal that we get, I thought was a really important time in the game. Because that could have went one of two ways. They get another goal, now all of a sudden it’s a 3-2 game and it’s a hockey game. Those circumstances are hard. I thought the guys did a real good job of just trying to hike their intensity level and try to establish the game we wanted to play. That led to the power-play opportunity that we got and then obviously, I thought the power play was terrific.
“I thought Bread had a real good game as far as his execution, his decision-making. Not just on the power play, but just overall, but in particular on the power play. Obviously, that’s a huge goal for us,”
