Rangers win with ‘true team effort’ but still need more from top guns
The New York Rangers headed for Seattle with a 5-5-2 record after their a 4-3 comeback win against the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night. But they’re not going to get on the kind of roll they’ll need to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs without a lot more contributions from their top guns.
J.T Miller was the hero after scoring the game-winner 2:49 into overtime. But he would never have gotten the chance had the Rangers’ depth scorers not come through again to give New York its first win when trailing by multiple goals in the third period since Feb. 18, 2024, when they rallied to beat the New York Islanders 6-5 in OT at Met Life Stadium in their Stadium Series game.
Goals by defenseman Braden Schneider and third-line forward Taylor Raddysh 3:46 apart in the third period got the Rangers even after they trailed 3-1 through 40 minutes. Fourth-liner Jonny Brodzinski opened the scoring with a breakaway goal 5:44 into the game.
Miller finished the comeback by racing past Leon Draisaitl and beating Stuart Skinner.
The comeback began after coach Mike Sullivan shuffled his lines in an effort to generate more offense following a lackluster second period.
“Obviously, changed the lines up a little bit, trying to spark something,” Miller said. “We just had so many guys contribute. [Noah Laba] was unbelievable today. You see Rads chip in again, Schneids. We need that throughout the course of the season, you know what I mean? You have that depth scoring and they played a heck of a game and drove play for us today and made it easy for the next line going out there. That was a true team effort.”
The Rangers won on a night when Miller admitted that “I didn’t have my best.” He could have said the same about the rest of the top six.
Rangers need more production from their top scorers
The first two lines are supposed to drive the offense, but that hasn’t been the case recently.
Artemi Panarin, the Rangers’ leading scorer in each of his six seasons on Broadway, has seven points in 12 games and none in the past four. Take away his four-point night in Montreal on Oct, 18 and he’s produced three points in the other 11 games.
Mika Zibanejad had the game-winner in New York’s 2-0 win at Vancouver on Tuesday but has just four goals and six points in 12 games. He’s also minus-8 — tied with Alexis Lafreniere for the worst mark on the Rangers. Lafreniere scored his lone goal of the season on Oct. 9 and has just four assists, though three of those have come in the past four games.
Miller and Panarin are tops among the forwards with seven points in 12 games — not even a 50-point pace over a full season.
Luckily for the Rangers, the depth scorers have continued to produce — most notably Raddysh, who leads the team with five goals.
“You need guys like that to step up” Miller said. “It’s just part of the gig, and it’s a long season. We just have to keep playing the right way and try not to let the emotions get the better of us.”
The Rangers looked like a high school team during a power play late in the second period, so Sullivan decided some line-shuffling was in order among his top nine. He put Panarin, Miller and Zibanejad together on the top line, and elevated rookie center Laba to play between Will Cuylle and Lafrenière. Juuso Pärssinen centered the third line with Conor Sheary and Raddysh.
“I just felt like our guys needed a spark,” Sullivan said. “We’ve been talking for a couple of games about loading up one line with our three studs, so to speak. Given the fact that it’s been a little bit of a struggle for them to put the puck in the net, we felt if we put them together, maybe that’ll give them a shot.”
Of course, he added with a smile, “The irony of it is, all the other lines scored.”
Still, a four-game trip that began gloomily with a 5-1 loss to the woeful Calgary Flames on Sunday will end Saturday with no worse than a split and possibly with a three-game winning streak — the Rangers have not lost in regulation in their four visits to Climate Pledge Arena.
In all, they are 5-1-1 on the road this season — but 0-4-1 at home, where they host the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday. Since 2021-22, the Rangers lead the NHL in road points (217) and wins (99).
But for any kind of sustained success, the Rangers have to get more — a lot more — from their big scorers.
Miller said he’s confident that will happen.
“I know mine are going to go in at some point,” he said. “I know that Mika will tell you the same thing, or [Artemi Panarin]. They’re going to go in, so we just have to keep playing the right way and try not to let the emotions get the better of us.”
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