Rangers look to ‘keep the positivity’ heading into February schedule
After a solid January, which included a season-high 10-game point streak, the New York Rangers closed out the month with a clunker of a loss, 4-0 to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
They ended the month with two straight losses, their first set of consecutive regulation defeats since losing four in a row Dec. 22-30. Nonetheless, the Rangers still posted an 8-3-3 record in January, a major turnaround after their dismal 4-15-0 stretch in November and December.
After the deflating loss Tuesday against a division rival, the message from Vincent Trocheck was simple:
“Head up, keep the confidence, keep the positivity, and just keep playing the way we have been and we’re going to have a good chance every night,” Trocheck said.
The veteran center, who’s emerged as one of the frontrunners to become the next captain of the Rangers, put his leadership skills on display after the loss, preaching positivity and confidence, rather than dwelling on one of New York’s worst performances since the calendar flipped to 2025.
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It’s tough to remain positive after failing to score a goal in front of the home crowd. Even more so when Trocheck played a large roll in Carolina’s backbreaking second goal. He made a risky drop pass on a short-handed breakaway which was turned over, leading to a goal against at the other end of the ice in the closing minute of the second period.
A bad look to say the least, but even so, he and the Rangers are looking already looking ahead to the month of February.
“I try to keep the spirits up,” he explained. “I mean, I think we’ve been playing fantastic hockey here in this month of January. If we continue to play that way, we’re going to have a good chance every night. Trying to keep everybody’s head up.”
That seems to be the message across the board, and rightfully so. The Rangers completely turned their season around after bottoming out the prior two months. Even after the loss to Carolina, they’re still just three points out of a wild-card spot thanks to some key teams also losing Tuesday, like the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning, who hold both wild-card spots in the Eastern Conference.
While the loss to the Hurricanes was more than concerning (as was the 5-4 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday), the best course of action is to move on and focus on the next opportunity to earn points.
“You can look at it all different angles, however you want, but I think we’ve been playing some good hockey here in January,” center Mika Zibanejad stated. “Think about this one, feel whatever you feel after a game like this, and then we move on.”
The Rangers have some crucial games coming up with heavy playoff implications. Two of their next three games are against the Bruins, who hold the first wild card. Boston has four more points than New York, a gap that the Rangers can easily close if they win both matchups. The Original Six teams will play Feb. 1 in Boston, then again Feb. 5 in New York.
So, the Rangers won’t have much time to look back on their latest loss. Over these next three days without a game, the focus has to be on not letting the losing skid extend this weekend and regaining their footing after an otherwise solid month of January.
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