Headed into the 2023-24 NHL season, we knew the Metropolitan Division was going to be among the most competitive in the league. The Metro has gifted us some of the best regular-season hockey for the past few years, after all, with at least four or five teams perpetually in the playoff conversation.

The Devils, coming off Jack Hughes' big breakout and an offseason full of major signings and extensions, and the Hurricanes, building on a trip to the Eastern Conference Final and half a decade of steady consistency, were widely considered the two teams set to battle for the No. 1 spot in the division. Both New Jersey and Carolina are doing just fine, but it's the New York Rangers (8-2-1) atop the Metro one month into the season.

The Rangers went 8-2-0 through their first 10 games, marking the second time in franchise history they won at least eight of their first 10 games to open a season. Their six-game winning streak was snapped Saturday with an overtime loss to the Wild.

The loss itself wasn't particularly concerning, but the fact that it was their first game after losing Adam Fox, Filip Chytil and Igor Shesterkin to injury raises an eyebrow.

The Blueshirts have a tough schedule ahead as they fight to maintain their reign of the Metro missing some key players. How did they have such a strong start in the first place, and what can they do to keep it rolling?

Bread Man Gets Paid

Artemi Panarin shaved his head and with that apparently shed any lingering bad vibes associated with the Rangers' first-round exit last postseason.

The 32-year-old winger with a penchant for playmaking has kicked off his 2023-24 campaign reminding us all he's still very much one of the best playmakers in the league. He's leading the Rangers and tied for fifth leaguewide in scoring, with six goals and 18 points in 11 games.

Nine of Panarin's 12 total assists are primary, and eight of the 12 are on the power play. Sometimes you look at the majority of a player's assists coming on the man advantage as a negative, but in Panarin's case, he's setting up shooting-percentage God Chris Kreider, who is in rare form even for power-play Kreider (more on this later).

Besides, five of his six goals have come at five-on-five.

All of this is a microcosm of the evenness of Panarin's contributions to the team at the start of this season. He's chipping in wherever he's needed, and sometimes you just need (or want!) a quick Kreider goal to change the tone of a game.

One of the Rangers' early weaknesses is a reliance on the top three-ish, and Panarin's 19:10 time on ice average isn't even the highest on the team in terms of forwards. Clearly, all of the Rangers' top forwards can handle it and probably enjoy it, but you wonder what this looks like 65 games into the season.

I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it and let the yeast rise with the Bread man for now.

Defense and Pleasant Goaltending Surprises

While scoring has been pretty predictable and top-heavy from the Rangers, defense and goaltending have been a total team effort that has allowed for said top-heavy scoring while the Rangers have maintained their spot atop the Metro.

The Rangers are the best team in the league in terms of goals against with just 23 allowed in 11 games, and their total goal differential is No. 5 at 11. Of course former Norris Trophy winner Fox has greatly contributed to this, logging a 21-plus time on ice average, and that top pairing has been absolutely rock solid to start the season.

Then you've got goaltending. You expect Shesterkin to be one of the best active goalies in the world, and he's been solid in his outings, boasting a 6-2-0 record, .913 save percentage, and 2.36 goals-against average. But veteran backup Jonathan Quick, whom the Rangers acquired in the offseason, has come out of the gates looking like vintage Quick, with a 2-0-1 record, including a .948 save percentage and a 1.42 goals-against average. According to MoneyPuck, he has 5.9 goals saved above expected, good for eighth in the league among all goaltenders.

With Shesterkin only seeming to have a minor lower-body injury that won't necessarily even place him on short-term injured reserve, the next few games could give Quick the opportunity to keep shining while Shesterkin recovers, and then everybody wins, right?

Power-Play Princes

The Rangers power-play sits at No. 4 in the league with a 31.6 percent success rate, converting on 12 of their 38 opportunities.

You guessed it, Chris Kreider is tied for the league with a whopping five power-play goals in 11 games. The Rebound King is on a pretty impressive tear, capitalizing on five of 10 total power-play shots. A shooting percentage of 50 obviously isn't sustainable, but it sure is fun, and even significant regression will still mean a solid Rangers power play.

According to Natural Stat Trick, Kreider's got 24 high-danger chances on the man advantage, so even when he hasn't converted, he's had a ridiculous amount of quality looks, which suggests this isn't just a lucky shooting percentage situation—even with regression, he's trending toward some level of consistent power-play production this season. Especially with feeders like Panarin and Mika Zibanejad on his unit. Add Fox and Vincent Trocheck into the mix, and you've got one of the best power plays in the league.

Again, Panarin's playmaking is a major driving force on that first unit, with five primary and eight total assists on the man advantage.

Fox has three power-play goals, and four other Blueshirts—only one of which, Alexis Lafreniere, is on the second unit—have one apiece.

You could argue that things really fall off with the second unit, but think of it like this: The power play ends when someone scores, and the first unit goes out first (duh). There simply hasn't been ample opportunity for the second unit to cook. We'll get a better look at what some of this Rangers depth is made of with Fox and Chytil out of the lineup.

Key Injuries Will Show Us What They're Really Made Of

Speaking of injuries, what are the Rangers really looking at with Fox, Chytil and Shesterkin out for varying amounts of time?

With Fox nursing a lower-body injury on long-term injured reserve, he'll be out until at least November 29, when the Rangers face off against the Red Wings again. Do you separate Miller and Trouba, who have been a bastion of consistency on the Rangers? Probably not, at least not at first.

In the same vein, Miller and Trouba already lead the Rangers in time on ice since Fox's penalty-killing time has decreased this season, so perhaps at least the penalty kill and holding things down in the Rangers' zone won't be too difficult of a transition without Fox.

The biggest challenge on a Fox-less Rangers team is finding ways to keep moving the puck, most notably through the neutral zone. Look out for puck movement against the Red Wings on Tuesday.

Then you've got top-six center Chytil out with an upper-body injury on regular injured reserve, meaning he'll be out for at least a week but potentially more. Perhaps Vincent Trocheck sneaks up in the lineup, perhaps it's the tried-and-true Mika Zibanejad logging more minutes, perhaps it's a committee approach down the middle, or perhaps the entire lines will change. It looks like Blake Wheeler's getting a shot at the "first line" next to Zibanejad and Kreider, and if there's any time to go for it and see what a modern-day Wheeler is working with, why not now?

You never want to see anyone get injured at any time in the season, but it's an inevitability in the sport. While the Rangers are already at the top and have at least a semblance of a cushion, now is as good a time as ever to swap the lines in and out and try to get a spark out of the less productive guys.

With this iteration of the Rangers, you know Kreider is going to tap it in on the power play. You know Shesterkin is going to be one of the best goaltenders in the league. You know Fox is one of the most dynamic defensemen, and Zibanejad is reliable, and Panarin will make the plays.

Alexis Lafreniere has had a somewhat encouraging start to the season with four goals and five points. Is this a good opportunity for him and some of the other supporting cast to really break out? The Rangers can add all the Patrick Kanes (who they are being linked to again, by the way) at the trade deadline, but if at least one of their young high draft picks goes on a tear, it could be the difference between another first-round exit and a long playoff run.