Rangers Week Ahead: J.T. Miller faces emotional return to Vancouver
J.T. Miller‘s return to Vancouver highlights an important week for the struggling New York Rangers. And perhaps seeing their captain back in Vancouver for the first time since the Canucks traded him to the Rangers on Jan. 31 will get their juices flowing a bit more as they try to end a three-game skid (0-2-1).
Of course, it’s hard to predict with these Rangers. Things looked promising heading into last week, when their three games included a home contest against a team that had lost three in a row, another home game against the League’s only winless team, and a road game against an opponent that was 0-7-1 after a shootout win on opening night.
Be honest: You were thinking anything less than two wins would be horrible, and expecting three victories didn’t appear to be asking too much.
Think again.
Instead, the Rangers headed for Western Canada after losing 3-1 at home to the Minnesota Wild, then dropping a 6-5 overtime decision to the San Jose Sharks.
But the 5-1 loss to the woeful Calgary Flames on Sunday was the low point of a bad week. Dustin Wolf outplayed Igor Shesterkin and Noah Laba’s first NHL goal was the lone highlight on a night when the Rangers started out flat and never recovered — leaving Miller unhappy, to say the least.
“There’s no excuses to come up flat,” he said. “This is not fun right now. We need to correct the starts. I think it’s becoming like the trend now, so we need to fix this now, on this trip. I mean, it’s a hard road trip, so we got to be ready to go to start the game.”
Miller will make his return to Vancouver on Tuesday, nearly nine months to the day that they traded him to the Rangers. Maybe a visit to his old stomping grounds will help him find his own scoring touch — Miller has six points (two goals, four assists) and is minus-4 in 10 games. For a player who’s averaged more than a point a game since 2019-20 and had 103 points in 2023-24, more is expected.
Who’s hot
Taylor Raddysh was the biggest reason the Rangers got even one point last week. The veteran bottom-six forward had one goal in his first eight games with the Rangers, before scoring three times in the loss to the Sharks, including the one that forced overtime and got New York a point in the standings. Hard as it is to believe, Raddysh leads the Rangers with four goals, and has one of their two short-handed tallies.
Who’s not
It was another lost week for Alexis Lafreniere, who had an assist against the Sharks but hasn’t scored a goal since Oct. 9, the second game of the season. He’s also a team-worst minus-10 that included back-to-back minus-3s against the Sharks and Flames. Lafreniere looks completely lost and saw his ice time cut in Calgary; he played just 16:04 — 2:20 less than he averaged entering the game.
Rangers lookahead this week includes …
Miller’s homecoming during the first of two games in Western Canada before a Saturday night visit to Seattle.
Rangers at Vancouver Canucks (Oct. 28, 10 p.m. ET; MSG)
Miller has five goals in 10 career games against the Canucks, including a goal and an assist when the Rangers defeated them 5-3 on March 22 at Madison Square Garden. He played the better part of six seasons with them, scored 30 goals or more three times, and had his three most productive seasons with 103, 99, and 82 points.
He was still with the Canucks when the Rangers hit their high point of last season, a 4-3 win at Rogers Arena last Nov. 19 that gave them a 12-4-1 record through 17 games. Things quickly went downhill from there, with a 4-15-0 collapse through the end of calendar year 2024 putting them in a hole they never climbed out of.
New York has won its past three visits to Vancouver and five of six meetings overall since the start of the 2022-23 season. The Canucks have never fared well against the Rangers, who are 86-37-2 with eight ties overall and 41-20-3 with one tie in Vancouver. Of course, that doesn’t include their only playoff meeting in 1994 — a series Rangers fans will never forget.
Since Shesterkin played all three games last week, don’t be surprised if Jonathan Quick gets the start in this one. His 20-20-4 record against the Canucks belies a 2.10 goals-against average and .924 save percentage. Shesterkin is 5-1-1 against Vancouver despite a 3.39 GAA and .886 save percentage. Go figure.
Rangers at Edmonton Oilers (Oct. 30, 9 p.m.; MSG)
The Rangers and Oilers complete their season series on the night before Halloween. New York looks to avenge a 2-0 loss to Edmonton at MSG 16 days earlier. The Rangers dominated play all night but couldn’t get a puck past Stuart Skinner, who stopped all 30 shots he faced.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing that night was that the Rangers limited the high-powered Oilers to just one goal before Edmonton hit the empty net. The Rangers shut down Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, outshot the Oilers 30-22 and had by far the better scoring chances. All they got for their effort was the dubious distinction of being the first team in NHL history to be shut out in each of its first three home games.
Shesterkin is 1-3-0 against the Oilers with a 3.00 GAA and .886 save percentage. However, the Rangers actually have a winning record in Edmonton – they are 20-16-3 with three ties despite a 6-2 blowout loss last Nov. 23.
Rangers at Seattle Kraken (Nov. 1, 10 p.m. MSG)
Few opponents have been as successful against the League’s newest team as the Rangers, who are 6-1-1 all-time against the Kraken and 3-0-1 at Climate Pledge Arena. That includes a 2-0 win in Seattle last Nov. 17. But the Kraken got some revenge with a 7-5 win three weeks later, another lowlight in the Rangers collapse of 2024-25
Little was expected from the Kraken this season after two straight non-playoff seasons, but they’re off to a 5-2-2 start under former Islanders coach Lane Lambert. The biggest reason for their early-season success is the play of goaltender Joey Daccord, who has all five wins (5-1-1) with a 2.48 GAA and a .915 save percentage.
Shesterkin is 4-0-1 against the Kraken, including the shutout last season Artemi Panarin (two goals, seven assists) and Mika Zibanejad (three goals, six assists) each has nine points in eight games against them.
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