Following a first-round exit to the New Jersey Devils, the Rangers were quick to make changes to their squad. That being said, hiring Peter Laviolette as head coach was by far the best.

A huge flaw in ex-head coach Gerard Gallant’s scheme is the ability to adjust when it mattered most. It was a common theme where the Rangers would be outplayed by their opponent and immediately the team would seem lost, uninterested and slow.

This year, general manager Chris Drury made sure that didn’t happen again. Peter Laviolette is a coach with a system. Someone who will motivate the team to keep working regardless of the score. Statistically, Peter Laviolette has been one of, if not the best coach in even strength situations since his first job as an NHL head coach back in 2001 with the Islanders.

The difference in play was evident for the blue shirts in both games they’ve played to start the season. In the first game of the season against Buffalo, the Rangers won by a commanding 5-1 score. However, that surprisingly wasn’t even the best part of that night. While holding the Sabres to one goal, the Rangers held Buffalo to two total high danger chances throughout the whole game. A stay like that would be unheard of during Gallant’s tenure.

Saturday night in Columbus, it was a lot of the same, except for the score. Even though the Rangers were defeated by a score of 5-3, the Blue Jackets were held to 22 total scoring chances, compared to the Rangers 40. Not only that, but the shots were a whopping 42-21 in favor of New York.

Besides the systems Laviolette is providing, Ranger fans are even more appreciative with the lines he’s putting together.

Since his arrival, Laviolette promised a promotion for both Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko, who have tons of pressure this season to go above and beyond and grow into stars.

Since their respective rookie seasons, both Kakko and Lafreniere were given sheltered minutes by not only Gallant, but former head coach David Quinn as well. The lack of ice time showed, as the 2019 second overall pick and the 2020 first overall pick haven’t been able to show their true potential thus far in their young careers.

That being said, Laviolette kept his promise. Kakko hasn’t left the top line since his first pre-season game, playing with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider, and Lafreniere has been showing huge strides in his game, while developing serious chemistry with his line-mates Artemi Panarin and Filip Chytil.

With the way this team has been playing, stopping them will be difficult task. At the end of the day, their success will depend on the consistency from everybody. As long as everybody buys into Laviolette’s system and continues to adapt, winning shouldn’t be a problem for New York.