Rangers’ impressive first win of season overshadowed by Vincent Trocheck injury

BUFFALO — The Rangers pulled a 180-degree turn from their first game of the 2025-26 season to the second.

After getting shut out in their home opener Tuesday, the Blueshirts blanked the Sabres 4-0 in their first game at KeyBank Center on Thursday night.

Though the first win of the season was to be celebrated, it was overshadowed by the loss of Vincent Trocheck to an upper-body injury in the second period.

It is unclear what led to Trocheck leaving the game with 13:38 left in the middle frame, but the Rangers ruled him out for the remainder of the contest at the start of the third.

Trocheck wore a full face shield for a majority of the preseason and through the first two games of the regular season after the 32-year-old took a puck to the face in practice one day. It is unclear if the two injuries are related.

The Rangers are already thin at center with Mika Zibanejad now skating on the wing.

If Trocheck has to miss some time, it’ll be interesting to see if head coach Mike Sullivan opts to put Zibanejad back in the middle or insert Juuso Parssinen or Jonny Brodzinski into the lineup.

Noah Laba won the third-line center role out of training camp, but Sullivan might not want to load the 22-year-old rookie with too much responsibility too early by moving him up into the top six.

The loss of Trocheck for any amount of time would impact the Rangers special teams units as well.

Fresh off a lackluster performance at home to start the season, the Rangers played a much more straight-line game in the first period Thursday.

There was an offensive mindset to the team that was desperately missing in its season-opening shutout loss to the Penguins.

As a result, Alexis Lafrenière notched the first Rangers goal of the 2025-26 season after burying a rebound off a shot from Artemi Panarin.

The score ended a 71:43 scoring drought to start the season.

The Sabres found their legs toward the end of the first period, which carried over into the second as they outshot the Rangers 13-5.

Three power plays certainly kept the ice tilted in Buffalo’s favor as well.

Goalie Igor Shesterkin preserved the Rangers lead with an 11-stop showing in the middle frame on the way to finishing with 37 saves on the night.

The star Russian netminder has looked incredibly sharp to start the season.

Despite the jumbled lines due to Trocheck’s injury, the Rangers managed to keep the Sabres at bay through the final 20 minutes of regulation.

Carson Soucy then padded the Blueshirts lead with just over five minutes left when the defenseman ripped one past Buffalo goalie Alex Lyon.

J.T. Miller also registered his first goal as Rangers captain, tipping a Braden Schneider shot for the 3-0 lead before an Adam Fox empty-net goal.