Rangers coach says injuries ‘didn’t help,’ but not excuse for lost season
Where New York Rangers general manager Chris Drury typically offers vague answers to questions about his team, coach Mike Sullivan tends to be more direct and expansive. Such was the case Friday at the team’s breakup day when a reporter asked Sullivan how big a role injuries played in the Rangers’ disappointing centennial season, one that ended with a last-place finish in the Eastern Conference.
“Well, it didn’t help, I’ll tell you that,” Sullivan quickly responded. “Listen, every team has to endure injuries, we’re no different in that regard. But what I’ll tell you is that some injuries are easier to endure than others, and we had some key ones at certain times in this season that made it tough.”
That they did. In fact, it’s fair to say that the dual lower-body injuries sustained by Igor Shesterkin and Adam Fox on the same night, Jan. 5 in an overtime loss to the Utah Mammoth, submarined the Rangers season. The Rangers lost 11 of 13 games without their No. 1 goalie and top defenseman, sunk like a boulder out of the playoff race, and led to Drury’s letter to the fans announcing a retool was in order.
As it was, the Rangers were barely afloat in the conference before the two stars went down. Fox already sat out most of December with an upper-body injury, and ended up missing 27 games this season. Vincent Trocheck revealed Friday that his 13-game absence in October was due to a frightening viral infection. Captain J.T. Miller missed 14 games, sidelined on more than one occasion, with various injuries, and played hurt far too often.
“‘Troch’ is obviously a real good player, a really important part of this team. ‘Foxy,’ he has those back-to-back injuries and we lose him for a significant period of time. And at the same time we lose ‘Shesty.’ I mean, these guys are core pieces to our team as far as their contributions and our ability to have success,” Sullivan explained.
Jonathan Quick dealt with a pair of lower-body injuries. Matt Rempe missed almost the entire season due to a thumb injury which required two surgeries. His linemate Adam Edstrom played with a fractured ankle and also missed significant time.
Those aren’t star players. But each injury tested the Rangers organizational depth, which was absolutely exposed when the stars were sidelined and helped lead to a 34-39-9 record this season. Hence, Drury’s plan to restock the talent pool with young NHL players and NHL-ready prospects. Plus the Rangers have 11 picks in the upcoming 2026 NHL Draft.
All told, the Rangers had 211 man-games lost to injury this season. A significant number, but not outrageous like, say the Florida Panthers, who stayed afloat a lot longer in the playoff chase despite a whopping 550+ man-games lost to injury.
And Sullivan understands that.
“It’s not an excuse. We have to find ways to dig in and continue to grab points along the way when those circumstances arise. Every team deals with them.”
