The New York Rangers’ unbeaten record at Madison Square Garden will be put to the test Monday when the Los Angeles Kings come to town carrying two familiar faces: former head coach Peter Laviolette and former star winger Artemi Panarin.
Laviolette, who led the Rangers to the Presidents’ Trophy and the Eastern Conference finals in 2023-24 before being fired a year later, is nine games into his first season behind the Kings’ bench. Monday will mark his first trip back to the Garden since his exit. Panarin, traded to Los Angeles last year before the Olympic roster freeze, will be making his second appearance back at the Garden as a King, having first returned in March.
Laviolette’s first season in New York produced 114 points and franchise records for points and wins (55), and made him the first coach in NHL history to guide six different teams to the playoffs. The follow-up season brought 85 points and no playoff berth.
In the offseason, the Kings reunited Laviolette with Panarin, who posted his best individual season under the coach in 2023-24 with 120 points on 49 goals and 71 assists. Panarin left New York ninth all-time in points by a Ranger (607), eighth all-time in assists (401) and first in points-per-game (1.26). He was dealt to Los Angeles in exchange for Liam Greentree and a third-round pick.
The Kings have struggled out of the gate this season, collecting just two wins, but Panarin scored twice in an overtime victory over the Islanders last week and now has six goals and nine points on the year.
The Rangers, meanwhile, have won six straight games at the Garden while managing just one win and three points on the road. They entered Sunday’s play with the league’s highest goals-per-game average at home (4.83) and the second-most total home goals (29) this season. A win Monday would give New York seven straight home victories to open a season for the first time since an eight-game run in 1990-91.
“We’re trying to build a team game that sets the group up for success regardless of where we play it,” head coach Mike Sullivan said Sunday. “And we’re trying to dictate the terms of how we play the game every single night — regardless of which rink we play it in. So it’s not like we have a game plan for home and a game plan for the road.”
“Obviously our guys have played extremely well at home, and we’ve had some success, which is great, and we gotta continue to build on that.”
Defenseman Adam Fox is set to play his 500th career game Monday. Mats Zuccarello, who spent parts of nine seasons with the Rangers from 2010 to 2019, has recorded one assist through five games in his first season with the Kings.
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