Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Artemi Panarin, Kaapo Kakko, Pavel Buchnevich—if you had to place a bet on who would score the first goal of the year for the New York Rangers, you’d probably pick one of those players.
Interestingly enough, Marc Staal forced conventional wisdom to seem foolish.
At the 11:35 mark of the first period, Staal took a puck in deep around the net thanks to a nifty Zibanejad feed. Staal put the puck on goal which found a way past Connor Hellebuyck for a 1-0 Ranger lead.
Marc Staal: 3 goals in 79 games last year, 1 goal in 1 game this year.