The age-old question with this Rangers hockey team in its 100th year of existence. 10 games through the 2025-2026 season, it’s time to assess where this group is at.
3-5-2 is fine. It’s not good, it’s certainly not great, statistically speaking it’s not even average. But it’s still not a disaster. It does tell a story though.
Up until the game against San Jose this past Thursday, things were mostly alright. Minus the stinker of a home opener against Pittsburgh (that I was unfortunately in the building for), they put forth a valiant effort against some quality teams. A 1-0 loss against Washington, 2-0 loss against Edmonton and a 2-1 overtime loss in Toronto all carried the same theme. Stingy defense, an abundance of scoring chances with an inability to finish and spectacular performances by the opposing netminder. As J.T. Miller reiterated in a few media scrums, getting the scoring chances and playing “the right way” is what matters.
It was absolutely the correct message at the time and a breath of fresh air to hear honest and raw thoughts from the captain. Charlie Lindgren, Stuart Skinner and Anthony Stolarz all came up with brilliant saves to keep the Rangers from picking up points they probably deserved. Tough luck.
In Montreal, the Rangers notched an inspiring 4-3 come-from-behind victory. They promptly turned around and lost a frustrating game against Minnesota on home ice a few days later. Artemi Panarin scored just 57 seconds into the first period, narrowly avoiding the ugly record held by the defunct 1928–29 Pittsburgh Pirates: 187 minutes and 19 seconds of scoreless hockey to start a season on home ice. I was also at MSG for this one and it felt like an audible sigh of relief from the lower bowl all the way up to the blue seats.
In typical Ranger fashion, they were held off the scoresheet the rest of the game and Minnesota left with 2 points. Another instance of getting goalie’d and having to answer to the media about it.
Mika Zibanejad was definitely more testy than usual in answering questions that night and I honestly didn’t hate the emotion. I’d rather 93 to be passionate than indifferent.
Then the San Jose Sharks came to town and all of a sudden, the defensive structure, poise and compete level were nowhere to be found. To Judi Jupiter’s delight, Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith combined for 9 points and the Rangers were lucky to have gotten the 1 point. You’ve probably seen the video already, but this blog can use some comedic relief.
After allowing San Jose to pick up their first win of the season, it set up the perfect opportunity to pounce on the lowly Calgary Flames three days later. Instead, the Rangers came out flat. They went down 2-0 in the first 10 minutes of the 1st period and couldn’t muster up any significant offense against another hot goalie in Dustin Wolf.
Against San Jose and especially Calgary, the ‘playing the right way’ excuse doesn’t have any weight. J.T Miller recognized this and again delivered the right message.
My growing concern is the ability for this top six forward group to get to the middle of the ice. We saw Zibanejad do it just prior to Panarin’s goal in Montreal, but I honestly can’t think of many other examples. It feels like this team is extremely thin in the playmaking department.
I tend to be optimistic but at this moment in time, I’m just not sure how the forward group stacks up against the rest of the league. Is Zibanejad, Miller, Lafrenière, Panarin going to outplay the opposition’s top guns more often than not? I saw a tweet today that paints a sobering picture and it’s hard to feel good about where this core is at.
Time passes us all by and it’s hard to process the fact we aren’t watching the 2019 or 2020 versions of Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad anymore. Almost all of the highest paid guys on this roster are on the wrong side of 30 in a league that’s getting younger and younger.
And as far as Lafrenière, here’s another sobering tweet I came across:
You can debate the order here, but the one part of this that’s not really up for debate is Lafrenière at #10. He’s not playing terribly by any means but he’s definitely not driving play the way most other guys on that list routinely do. It’s super unfortunate, because I love Lafrenière and have written about not writing him off in the past. The fact of the matter – this is his 6th year as a pro and the Rangers desperately need him to contribute in a big way.
Right now, the Rangers sit tied for last in the Eastern Conference. In the salary cap era starting in 2005-2006, 184 out of 240 teams in a playoff spot by Thanksgiving qualified for the playoffs (76.7%). While it’s a long season, things get late pretty quickly.
Alright alright, enough doom and gloom. I’m still going to watch the games and if you’re reading this, you probably are too. What’s the use of being overly pessimistic? They’ll be getting Vincent Trocheck back at some point to bolster the strength down the middle and will eventually stop running into brick walls between the pipes. Mike Sullivan’s system and ideology could use more than 10 games to fully take a hold of the locker room. This roster is aging, but I trust J.T. Miller to squeeze every last drop from it. And while Igor wasn’t great in Calgary, he’s been pretty solid to start the year.
I’m not quite panicking yet but my hand is hovering over the button. We’re going to learn a lot about the makeup of this group by the end of this road trip, with stops in Vancouver, Edmonton and Seattle. By the time they leave Seattle, we’ll know if this team still has a pulse or if it’s time to smash the button and google the 2026 draft class.
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