New York Rangers week ahead features 2 home games before heading West
Meat Loaf had a big hit in the 70s with a song called “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad.” The New York Rangers are hoping that winning two out of three in a four-day span will help them rebound from the disastrous stretch that sent them reeling toward the bottom of the standings.
A 2-1 home win against the Boston Bruins at Madison Square Garden on Thursday and a 6-2 road win against the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday have spirits at MSG looking up as the Rangers prepare for three tough opponents in a five-day stretch this week. The wins sandwiched a sloppy 7-4 road loss to the Washington Capitals on Saturday that saw the Rangers struggle badly in their own zone.
The two wins came in dramatically different ways.
Jonathan Quick’s heroics (32 saves) were enough to make two early goals stand up against the Bruins, ending a four-game losing streak. The offense, which showed signs of waking up in Washington, had its biggest game in more than two months against the lowly Blackhawks, who are last in the overall NHL standings but had beaten the Rangers 2-1 at MSG on Dec. 9. Twelve of the 18 skaters who dressed had at least one point, and the Rangers actually glided to victory after scoring five straight goals in the first and second periods.
Two out of three is also the makeup of this week’s schedule.
The Rangers have home games on Tuesday against the Dallas Stars and Thursday against the New Jersey Devils before beginning a three-game Western swing with a visit to the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday. Despite the two wins last week, New York is still 14th in the Eastern Conference and four points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins, who hold the second wild card in the East. With eight teams separated by four points in the race for the last playoff spot, the Rangers need at least two out of three this week.
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Who’s hot
Filip Chytil scored three goals in the two weekend games, including a beautiful breakaway tally in Washington on Saturday. He followed that with two goals on Sunday in Chicago, giving him 10 for the season. He has points in four straight games (four goals, one assist).
Louis Domingue has now played two games as a Ranger and won them both. The 32-year-old, who’s spent his career bouncing between the NHL and the AHL, made 25 saves Sunday in Chicago in his first NHL game this season after being recalled from Hartford when Igor Shesterkin went on the injured list with an upper-body injury. He won his only start (Nov. 9, 2023 against the Minnesota Wild) last season.
Who’s not
Alexis Lafreniere’s fast start is a distant memory. Lafreniere, who signed a mammoth seven-year contract in October, ended a stretch of eight games without a point with a secondary assist Sunday. But he’s gone 13 games without a goal since scoring against the Seattle Kraken, and his plus-minus total (minus-13) is worse than everyone else on the team except Mika Zibanejad (minus-19).
Rangers lookahead this week includes …
Two home games against tough opponents before beginning a nasty three-game Western trip against the team with the best points percentage in the NHL.
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Dallas Stars at Rangers (Jan. 7, 7 p.m. ET; MSG)
The Stars will be out for revenge when they arrive at the Garden for the start of a five-game road trip. The Rangers won four of their past five games against the Stars, including a 3-1 victory in Dallas on Dec. 20, when Shesterkin put on a show. He finished with 41 saves and stopped all 21 shots he faced during the Stars’ 17 minutes of power-play time.
Quick is likely to get the start against the Stars, a team he saw quite often during his time with the Los Angeles Kings. He is 18-12-5 lifetime against Dallas but has a solid 2.38 goals-against average and .914 save percentage. In contrast, Jake Oettinger, Dallas’ No. 1 goalie, has never beaten the Rangers. He is 0-2-1 in his career, including the loss in Dallas last month, with a 3.55 GAA and .878 save percentage in four career games against New York.
Artemi Panarin has just two goals in 22 career games against Dallas, his fewest against any team he’s faced at least 20 times.
New Jersey Devils at Rangers (Jan. 9, 7 p.m. MSG)
Speaking of revenge … the Rangers will be looking for some when the Devils come to town to complete a six-game road trip that has seen them lose the first four – including all three on a swing through California last week.
But they’ve had the Rangers’ number this season, winning both games against their cross-Hudson foes last month by a combined score of 10-1. The Devils embarrassed the Rangers 5-0 at Prudential Center on Dec. 23, three weeks after ripping them up in a 5-1 win at the Garden.
Devils center Jack Hughes has better career numbers against the Rangers than against any other team. In 22 games, he has 26 points (15 goals, 11 assists). That includes a pair of two-goal, one-assist performances in the two games this season. Jacob Markstrom got the win in each of the two games this season, improving his career numbers against New York to 11-4-2 with a 2.20 GAA and .922 save percentage.
Panarin has had good success in his career against the Devils, putting up 44 points (14 goals, 30 assists) in 35 games.
Rangers at Vegas Golden Knights (10 p.m.; MSG)
The Rangers may have won the Presidents’ Trophy last season, but the Golden Knights blew them out twice in an eight-day span in mid-January, winning 5-1 in Las Vegas on Jan. 18, 2024, and 5-2 in New York eight days later. Overall, Vegas has won eight of its 12 games against the Rangers, going 4-2-0 each at T-Mobile Arena and MSG. The Rangers do have the only shutout by either team, a 5-0 win at Vegas on Dec. 8, 2019.
Quick was a member of the Golden Knights’ 2023 Stanley Cup championship team, but he’s had little success against Vegas, 5-9-1 with a 4.00 GAA and .881 save percentage. Adin Hill, who carried the goaltending load when the Golden Knights won the Cup, has lost four of six career decisions against the Rangers despite a 2.49 GAA and .922 save percentage.
Chris Kreider has found the net with regularity against Vegas, scoring six goals in 11 games.
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