Any chain in the world can try to play in the NHL for a good five weeks without conceding a single goal. The three-line of the New York Rangers has been able to pull off this somewhat dumbfounding trick, with a 23-year-old striker from Turku playing on the other side Kaapo Kako.
Trio, which includes, in addition to Kako, a center Filip Chytil as well as a power forward to Will Cuyhas racked up a crushing goal difference of 11–0 in fourteen matches and around 130 minutes!
And that’s not all: the three who are waiting for a goal have dominated more than 65 percent. The quotation is the second highest of the entire series at the hundred-minute mark. The combined power of the trio is recorded after sixteen matches at 11+19 and the power statistic reads +33.
Merciless artillery from players under 14 minutes.
The chain can with good reason be called one of the best triple chains of autumn.
On the other hand, is a strong autumn a big surprise, because three really good players play in the chain – two first and one second round reservation. Chytil has summer 2017 and Kakko summer 2019 bookings from the opening round. Cuylle’s name was announced at the corona summer 2020 event in the second round.
Chytil, who came through the Czech national team pipeline and is profiled as an excellent two-way center, is already playing his seventh season in the NHL, Kakkok’s sixth. Cuylle is only playing for the second time, but the trio has accumulated almost a hundred games of experience from the playoffs, for example.
Although age groups are not impossible, the trio definitely belongs to the weight class of men, not boys.
This can be seen in the reliable and heavy playing style. The trio does not look for the moon in the sky with their play, but above all plays winning hockey, constantly making winning choices in terms of the game. The pucks are played smartly deep into the opponent’s end, where Cuylle, who had the fifth most tackles in the NHL in the fall, and his assistants are at their best.
The trio is a disgusting and difficult opponent in the corners and near the wings. Also, the skilled Kakko is at his best in the fast games of the offensive game in the offensive zone. When you think about the most important tasks of the triple chain of a good NHL team, this trio performs them well night after night at both ends of the court.
Chytil is a downright classless starter as a center, but otherwise the trio has few weaknesses for this role.
Ying and Yang
Kakko has also started to find its place in the chain on Broadway. After a nightmarishly difficult last season, Kakko, who signed a contract with Rangers worth one year and 2.4 million dollars, has had a great start to the season.
The second one hasn’t changed or developed in any area in a striking way, but the gameplay seems to have the right kind of peace and balance now.
Perhaps the Turku native is beginning to find a balance in expectations as well.
Kakko belongs to that series of young players who should be freed from the yoke of expectations created by the booking number. Kakko was booked in the summer of 2019 as the second player in the entire booking event, which set expectations high, perhaps too high. There has been talk of a solution player in the top chain, but maybe only now Kakko is starting to find himself and his place.
In the case of Kako, the prospects of a solution player in the top chain can be forgotten now at the latest. Kakko is an extremely reliable and versatile player when used correctly.
A fifteen-minute or so role as a mid-deck player as part of another dominant formation is the best way to use Kakko. The player himself seems to have accepted this.
Perhaps Chytil as a center was not the most charming option for Kako, the fans, or the media, as a pair of Finnish horns, but in fact they complement each other brilliantly.
Kakko has been able to try with all the center forwards in New York, but the game always seems to work best with Chytil.
The two caused havoc in their time and have since moved to the upper chains Alexis Lafreniere with, now Cuyllen. During the previous three years, Kakko and Chytil have won their games with five against five 43–25 and controlled more than 53% of the goal chances in the first sector.
Kako’s place is right now in third place and specifically next to Chytil. It best helps the team and Kakko himself.
Bad news
This brings us to the bad news on the donkey bridge.
Chytil was injured over the weekend. Last season, the Czech center played only 10 regular season games due to a concussion, and now the collision with his own defender by K’Andre Miller with probably gave him his fourth concussion in seven years in New York.
Chytil did not travel with his team for the west coast game trip at the end of the week.
The situation is miserable not only for the always unlucky player, but also for Rangers as a team. Why not for Kako too. The top chains of the team have not yet found the flying weather like last season, and now an important piece is falling from the intact whole.
Played in place of Chytil on Monday Johnny Brodzinski is not a solution if Chytil’s injury turns out to be more serious.
Kako’s triple chain still played well even in Seattle. It already hit the post in the opening set, after Kako’s winning start, and immediately after, Kakko himself got to the finish line. In the third period, Kakko started as a defender by Zac Jones struck, the 2–0 hit that secured the victory.
The second Rangers wants to emerge more and more strongly now, and based on the fall, this has everything to answer the call in this regard.