The New York Rangers opened a four-game West Coast road trip against the Seattle Kraken on Saturday afternoon, with the puck dropping at 2:00 PM PT and 5:00 PM ET. The game was on MSG 2 and 1050 AM, and it gave the Rangers an immediate test away from home after a strong start to the season.
Adam Fox is the player who makes that start look even sharper. Through his first 17 games, he had 21 points, including 2 goals and 19 assists, and his 19 assists were tied for fourth in the NHL. His six multi-point games led the Rangers and ranked tied for third among NHL blueliners, while his five multi-assist games were tied for sixth among all skaters. On Nov. 5, he reached 20 points in 17 games, the fastest Rangers defenseman to that mark since Brian Leetch did it in 15 games in 2000-01, and his 161st power-play assist pushed him past Mark Messier for sixth on the franchise list.
Fox's numbers fit a Rangers team that has been winning games in a variety of ways. The club had been in front for 440:36 minutes this season, fourth-most in the league, had 430 hits, ranked eighth with 73 takeaways and was 48-for-53 on the penalty kill, a 90.6 percent clip that led the NHL. On the road, the Rangers had allowed only one power-play goal, the fewest in the league, and they had held opponents to two or fewer goals 10 times. They were also tied for second in the league with seven wins when leading after the first period, even though they still sat seventh in the NHL at 2.88 goals-against per game.
The matchup also carried a long list of familiar faces. Oliver Bjorkstrand had spent parts of three seasons with the Kraken and produced 141 points in 224 games there. Tye Kartye had played his first three NHL seasons in Seattle, while Eeli Tolvanen had skated in 288 games for the Kraken across parts of four seasons. Lane Lambert also had Rangers history, having played 18 games for the club in 1986-87, and Kaapo Kakko and Ryan Lindgren returned to face their former team after long runs in New York. Lindgren, who served as an alternate captain from 2023 to March 2025, played 387 games for the Rangers.
The one number that tempers the polish is that goals-against rate. The Rangers have not been easy to score on, but seventh in the NHL is still seventh, and that leaves little margin once the game opens up. This trip opener was the first chance to see whether their special teams, puck pursuit and Fox's early-season production could carry over when the schedule moved west and the games started to pile up.
