On the other hand the Ducks aren’t known to be great defensively against any team, the Rangers only scored two even strength goals
Last year they were known as a eh 5v5 team that got by on goaltending and special teams, which just stat watching seems the case here just so far as results; I’ve watched a couple of their games this year and they’ve been pretty back and forth who’s controlling even strenght
The “only a few games” thing applies both to saying “they’re perfect now” and “they will for sure be the same as last year” but gun to my head I’d lean to the latter just based on what little we’ve seen. They lit up a poor ducks team on the PP and allowed 4 goals still, and they lit up a Wild team with atrocious goaltending (a game in which I’m sure the Rangers come to control 5v5 after I stopped watching, but the Wild looked really good at one point too)
They did beat a Bolts team where the rangers did control after the first period, and they also lost fairly big to the Jets.
It’s really hard to come to any new conclusions yet, to the Op
agree its way too early to say anyones in the drivers seat .... i mean you have a good idea of a couple teams who feel likely to be involved but theres always injuries and other surprises. it takes at least 10 games before teams begin to settle into who they'll be - early on feel like teams who've been together and had success have can be at an advantage with familiarity that can fall back to earth as other teams find identities, and there's always a couple less talented teams who come out flying with that cant sustain that effort level for 82 games
the game evals need a lot more context than that tho, i mean they scored 3 straight ev strength to take a 5-2 lead into the 3rd against ana. it was over then - sloppy 3rd but it was only ever close on the scoreboard. and they played winn on the 2nd of a back to back of a 3rd in 4 in their home opener traveling out west, and they put up over 40 shots in a game that was 1-1 with 5 mins to go...bit of a stretch to say they lost big.
so all things considered and being as objective as i can in evaluating them, i'd have my money on their level settling on your former. the big thing 5 on 5 is i'm not sure that other than while shorthanded, i can't recall any instances of what would occur too often last year - those extended periods where the rangers were pinned in their end. pretty much any 5 on 5 goal against has been off transition or off an entry/puck retrieval. minn/wpg got possession in the zone and created here and there, but thats going to happen against teams with elite players, and it still was nothing like last year in duration or volume of chances generated, and while they had stretches with the better of play it hasn't looked like last year. so if anything, i'd expect those early season gaffes to get cleaned up and their puck control to become more efficient turning into offense as their lines figure each other out.
