3 Rangers takeaways after narrow victory against slumping Sabres
It turned out that the Buffalo Sabres were the perfect opponent at the perfect time for the New York Rangers on Wednesday night. In a clash of slumping teams at KeyBank Center, the Rangers won for the third time in 11 games (3-8-0), skating to a 3-2 victory.
Now, let’s be fair. The Rangers (15-12-1) did play a better all-around game than, say, in their lackluster 2-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday. It wasn’t perfect against a Sabres team that’s now lost eight straight (0-5-3) and didn’t wake up until the third period. But it was a win, and the Rangers needed it badly.
“That’s what we talked about before the game, just one, one win,” Mika Zibanejad told reporters postgame. “That’s all we care about. Obviously, you want to be able to stand here with an unbelievable effort for 60 minutes and have only positive stuff [to say], but I’ll take the win. We’ll take the win, and keep building.”
The Rangers had a good start, playing a physical brand of hockey, scoring the first goal, and defending hard. The second period was still good, though they struggled to get the puck past a sharp Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. But the third period was troublesome — the Sabres buzzed them all period.
But New York never trailed, Igor Shesterkin played well and, all in all, it was a good win.
Related: Larry Brooks says Mika Zibanejad ‘is very sensitive,’ which causes Rangers center issues
3 takeaways from Rangers 3-2 win against Sabres
Here are three takeaways from the Rangers win Wednesday night.
1. Fox breaks the ice
You could see the wry smile on Adam Fox’s face after his shot from the Rangers’ own goal line settled into the back of the empty Sabres net at 17:58 of the third period. You could almost hear him say, “Finally!”
Yep, the 26-year-old defenseman, who averages more than 23 minutes TOI per game, scored his first goal of the season. That was 27 games without scoring one this season. Plus, he hadn’t scored since the final regular-season game in 2023-24, so if you add in 16 Stanley Cup Playoff games last spring, that was 43 games without a goal for Fox, who potted an NHL career-high 17 goals last season.
It was an important one, too. His goal made it 3-1 at the time, but became the game winner when Tage Thompson scored for the Sabres in the final minute. Throw in two assists for his third three-point game of the season and Fox was a worthy First Star in Buffalo.
Despite his lack of goal scoring, Fox has 25 points this season, tied for fifth among NHL defensemen and nearly at a point-per-game pace.
2. Mika milestone
Zibanejad bounced back from a rough night against the Blackhawks — his weak first-period turnover led directly to Chicago’s game-opening goal — with a strong game against the Sabres. He scored his 300th NHL goal to open the scoring at 7:01 of the first period. It was only his second power-play goal this season, a blistering shot from right wing after a neat seem pass by Artemi Panarin.
The 31-year-old center has points in five of his past six games (two goals, four assists) and was engaged all night, with five shots on goal and even a pair of hits. He’s now scored 236 goals with the Rangers after beginning his career with 64 for the Ottawa Senators.
Speaking of milestones, Panarin played his 700th NHL game. The assist gives him 816 points (280 goals, 536 assists) in those games, playing for the Rangers, Blackhawks and Columbus Blue Jackets.
3. “Key” concern
Not all the Rangers news was upbeat Wednesday. K’Andre Miller sustained an upper-body injury and didn’t play at all in the third period. Coach Peter Laviolette did not have an update after the game. Miller, who logs 21:21 TOI this season, will be further evaluated Thursday. Since the Rangers don’t practice Thursday, the next update on Miller likely will come Friday.
The Rangers are dangerously thin on the blue line. They traded Jacob Trouba last week. Urho Vaakanainen, who arrived from the Anaheim Ducks in that deal, is on IR. So, rookie Victor Mancini is on the third pair with Zac Jones — a pair Laviolette shelters as best he can. If Miller misses any games, the options to step in are veteran Chad Ruhwedel or someone like Matthew Robertson or Connor Mackey on recall from Hartford of the American Hockey League.
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