Rangers Week Ahead: 4 games in 6 days, trying to escape Metro basement
The New York Rangers begin Thanksgiving Week looking up at the rest of the Metropolitan Division after losing their past four games and completing a 0-3-0 road trip with a 3-2 loss to the Utah Mammoth on Saturday.
It’s not that the Rangers were awful last week – take away two empty-net goals in a 6-3 loss to the NHL-leading Colorado Avalanche and they came up on the wrong end of three one-goal losses. But when the time came to make the plays necessary to win, the Rangers didn’t make them. That was especially true in Salt Lake City on Saturday night, when they wasted a terrific effort by goaltender Jonathan Quick.
“I just didn’t think, for whatever reason, we had the juice, the energy,” coach Mike Sullivan said afterward.
The Rangers enter the new week at 10-11-2, last in the Metro and 15th in the 16-team Eastern Conference. They are last in the East in scoring with 58 goals, averaged 19.75 shots per game during their losing streak, and are wasting some excellent goaltending because they can’t put the puck in the net.
They’re also without captain J.T. Miller, who is listed as day to day after he sustained an upper-body injury in Denver. Will Borgen is on IR with an upper-body injury, as well, and Quick appeared to get banged up late in the loss Saturday.
As such, the Rangers recalled forward Brett Berard and goalie Dylan Garand from AHL Hartford on Sunday.
The Rangers also looked a bit fatigued against the Mammoth – probably because they were playing their fifth game in eight days and their ninth in 16 days in nine cities. But the holiday week won’t give them much chance for a breather.
They stayed over in Salt Lake City on Saturday, flew home Sunday, and begin another hectic stretch when the St. Louis Blues come to Madison Square Garden on Monday. After hosting the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday afternoon, they’ll have played 15 times in 29 days in November without consecutive games in the same city.
Who’s hot
Quick’s won-lost record is just 3-3-0, but his goals-against average (1.69) and save percentage (.944) are the best by any goaltender who’s played at least six games. He lost his past two starts despite allowing a total of five goals – largely because the Rangers were outshot 76-41. However, now there’s concern Quick could be sidelined after a goal-mouth collision in the final minutes of that game Saturday.
Who’s not
Alexis Lafreniere has gone cold again. The first player taken in the 2020 NHL Draft is pointless in his past five games and has just 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in 23 games.
Rangers lookahead this week includes …
Four games in six days in four cities, including an afternoon back-to-back set Friday and Saturday.
St. Louis Blues at Rangers (Nov. 24, 7 p.m.; MSG2/NHL Network)
The Blues swept the two-game season series in 2024-25, but the Garden has never been one of their favorite stops around the NHL – the Rangers are 51-16-1 with six ties at home against St. Louis, which entered the NHL in 1967. The Blues are catching the Rangers at the same point in the schedule that they did last season – on the Monday before Thanksgiving and the first game back after a trip out West.
Artemi Panarin fares well against the Blues in his career – he has 26 points (five goals, 21 assists) in 23 games. Igor Shesterkin is 3-3-0 against St. Louis despite a 3.60 GAA and .886 save percentage.
Pavel Buchnevich, traded to the Blues in July 2021, has four goals in seven games against his old club.
Rangers at Carolina Hurricanes (Nov. 26, 7 p.m., MSG2)
Defeating Carolina has been a problem for the Rangers during the past couple of years. The Hurricanes won 3-0 at the Garden on Nov. 4 to extend their winning streak against the Rangers to five games. The Rangers’ last regular-season win against the former Hartford Whalers was a 1-0 victory in Raleigh on March 12, 2024 – though they won one of the most memorable games in their history on May 16, 2024, when Chris Kreider’s third-period natural hat trick helped them to a series-clinching 5-3 win in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Second Round.
Panarin (11 goals, 28 points in 32 games) and Mika Zibanejad (15 goals, 37 points in 41 games) have solid career numbers against Carolina.
Don’t be surprised if the Rangers see Pyotr Kochetkov in the Hurricanes’ net. He stopped all 26 shots he faced in the win at the Garden earlier this month and is 5-2-0 lifetime against the Rangers with a 1.87 GAA and .934 save percentage. Seth Jarvis leads the Hurricanes with 11 goals and scored seven times in 11 career games against the Rangers.
Rangers at Boston Bruins (Nov. 28, 1 p.m., TNT/HBO Max)
Two of the NHL Original Six face each other for the first time this season in a nationally televised game matching teams trying to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs after missing the postseason in 2024-25.
Not much was expected from the Bruins this season, but they’ve been one of the League’s biggest surprises. David Pastrnak is on course for his fourth straight 100-point season and has 40 points (18 goals, 22 assists) in 37 games against the Rangers. But perhaps the biggest reason for Boston’s early-season success is Morgan Geekie, who entered the week tied for the NHL lead with 17 goals.
The Rangers are 5-1-0 in their previous six games against Boston, including three straight wins at the Garden. Quick who could start in the first of back-to-games if he’s healthy, excels against the Bruins during his career – he’s 14-6-1 with a 2.34 goals-against average and .921 save percentage.
Tampa Bay Lightning at Rangers (Nov. 28, 2 p.m.; MSG/NHL Network)
Each team is playing the second of back-to-back afternoon games and its fourth game in six days. The Lightning will undoubtedly be out for a little revenge after getting clobbered 7-3 by the Rangers in Tampa on national TV 16 days earlier.
It figures to be another battle between two premier Russian goaltenders. The Rangers lit up Andrei Vasilevskiy on Nov. 12, scoring six times in two periods before he got the hook. Vasilevskiy has just seven of his 339 career wins against New York, and he’s 7-9-2 against them in his career.
Shesterkin, who got the win in Tampa, excels against the Lightning. He’s 8-3-1 lifetime against the Bolts with a 2.33 GAA and .923 save percentage.
The Rangers are 6-1-0 in their past seven meetings against the Lightning at the Garden.
