MONTREAL – Captain Jacob Trouba didn’t score or assist on any of the New York Rangers’ first four goals, all of which came on the rush at 11:05 a.m. in the first minute of the game, but he is the reason the offense started.

Shortly after recognizing members of the 1976-79 Cup-winning teams, the Montreal Canadiens appeared to be on their way to a strong opening period. After the Canadiens’ extended zone time, slippery rookie Lane Hutson hit a one-timer. His shot went straight into Trouba’s leg, giving the New York captain two blocked shots on the shift. Artemi Panarin picked it up and the Rangers were on their way. He fed Adam Fox, who had jumped up for a change, and Fox found Mika Zibanejad in the high slot. Zibanejad hadn’t scored a five-on-five goal this year, but that didn’t stop him from putting a puck in the net once. The shot beat Habs goaltender Samuel Montembeault.

“If you can play well defensively, you are definitely the right choice on offense,” said coach Peter Laviolette. “We knew this could happen tonight. … That was an example early on.”

The sequence set the tone for the network. These were no longer the championship Canadiens of old. Montreal is a young team that has bigger ambitions for the future than the present. The Rangers treated them as such with a 7-2 win. Twelve of the team’s 18 skaters had at least one point.

Here are four takeaways from the game, including a note on Trouba’s most controversial play: a big hit against Justin Barron.

The third row continues its strong start

Laviolette wanted to bring Will Cuylle, Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko together at the start of camp and let them grow through continuity. This strategy paid off. The trio doesn’t have the offensive advantages of the Panarin-Vincent Trocheck-Alexis Lafrenière line, but it is solid defensively and can contribute offensively, as shown on Tuesday. Kakko and Chytil each had three points and Cuylle had two.

“They played the game the right way,” Laviolette said.

In six games this season, the Cuylle-Chytil-Kakko line has never been on the ice for a five-on-five goal against them. According to Natural Stat Trick, with them on the ice, the Rangers scored seven goals and shot 66 percent of their expected goal share while outshooting and outshooting their opponents.

“It’s already been six games (without goals), so that’s a good thing,” Kakko said, although he believes the team has missed too many chances in recent games. “If it goes on like this for a few more games, we’ll start to think about it a little more.”

Even though it wasn’t a five-on-five goal, Kakko and Chytil teamed up to score on the power play. They’re both on the second unit, which doesn’t normally get much ice time, but came through against Montreal. When the unit was on the ice towards the end of the first period, Chytil took the puck from Jake Evans in the defensive zone and then passed it through the neutral zone into the Canadiens’ possession. There he dropped the puck to Kakko, who passed it to Reilly Smith. Meanwhile, Chytil shot into the net, where Smith used his stick to move the puck toward the goal. That knocked Montembeault out of the game.

When the team was back on balance, Braden Schneider scored a goal in the second period, and Chytil and Kakko scored in the third period. Chytil’s second goal of the game came after the penalty shootout with a mixed line. Cuylle and Sam Carrick were camped in front of the net when the puck trickled to him and he sent it past Cayden Primeau. Kakko scored on a snap shot less than a minute later.

“He could have passed it to me for a hat trick, but instead he scored it,” Chytil joked after the game. “I’m happy that he scored a goal. He’s playing great.”

Montreal defenseman Justin Barron left the game after a goal from Jacob Trouba. (Marc DesRosiers / Imagn Images)

Big hit from Trouba upsets the Canadiens

Trouba scored his first huge goal of the year when he rammed Barron along the wall in the third period. Barron appeared to lower his body at the time of the hit, which apparently contributed to Trouba making contact with his head during the play. Barron remained lying down after the hit and left the game. The Rangers captain did not comment on the game after the game; He first wanted to watch a replay of the hit.

Officials did not impose a penalty for the play, likely because the rules take into account “whether the opponent places himself or herself in a vulnerable position by adopting a posture that makes head contact unavoidable in an otherwise full-body check,” according to the official rule book .

However, that didn’t mean Montreal liked it. Defenseman Mike Matheson charged at Trouba and the two engaged in a brief fight. Both players received a five-minute fighting penalty, and the officials also assessed Matheson an instigator penalty and a misconduct penalty, giving the Rangers a power play substitution.

However, the Canadiens want the player safety department to look into the hit.

“You had a clean hit on the ice, we got a hit to the head from a player who got multiple warnings,” Brendan Gallagher said. “So whether the league decides to do the right thing, whether he gets another pass, is up to them. … I think it’s a shot in the head, but we’ll see what happens.”

Coach Martin St. Louis added: “When I saw the replay, I realized that the main point of contact was the head.”

Edström’s hustle key early

Two minutes into the game, Schneider threw a puck across the ice from the defensive zone. The Canadiens, assuming the officials would call that icing, slowed down a little too early.

Rangers rookie Adam Edström benefited from this. He pushed past Jayden Struble and Logan Mailloux and grabbed the puck behind the net. He played a backhand pass into the slot where Jonny Brodzinski was all alone in front of the net. The veteran striker, who left the last game in favor of Matt Rempe, suffered a wrist injury.

The Canadiens had a valid argument that the game could have been over because of icing, but Edstrom’s rush forced the referees to make a decision. They called it good. The piece was the highlight of a good evening for the fourth row of Edström, Carrick and Brodzinski. All three had a point and the Rangers had 54 percent of their expected goal share when they were on the ice together in five-on-five play, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Lindgren returns, Mancini stays in

Ryan Lindgren made his season debut against the Canadiens and played 17:20 while wearing a full face shield with extra padding. The defenseman missed the first five games due to a jaw injury that required surgery.

“Maybe a little rusty, but I felt pretty good,” he said.

Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki passed Lindgren for a power-play goal, but according to Natural Stat Trick, the Rangers had more than 60 percent of their expected goal share with the 26-year-old on the ice. Laviolette said it was great to have him back in the lineup.

“It’s never easy to bounce back the first time,” Laviolette said. “He has the full cage, which makes it even more difficult to watch the game, but I thought he had a pretty good game when he came back.”

Laviolette opted to pair Lindgren with rookie Victor Mancini, meaning Zac Jones had a healthy lead for the second straight game.

(Top photo: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)