New York Rangers week ahead features three road games, pit stop at MSG to start new year
The New York Rangers will be on the go as 2024 turns into 2025.
The Rangers play four games in seven days in four cities this week, beginning Monday night against the Florida Panthers, the team that eliminated them in the Eastern Conference Final on June 1. They’ll be trying to end a three-game losing streak by winning their final game of the outgoing year. 2025 begins with a home game against the Boston Bruins before hitting the road again for afternoon games against the Washington Capitals on Saturday and the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday.
A 4-14-0 stretch has dropped the Rangers (16-18-1, 33 points) into last place in the Metropolitan Division. They are 14th in the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of the Detroit Red Wings and Buffalo Sabres, who are tied for last. New York is six points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins, who hold the second wild card, and five behind the Ottawa Senators, who have a better points percentage but have played three fewer games than the Penguins.
The Rangers’ return to action after the Christmas break didn’t end well – they dominated play for long stretches but got terrible special-teams play and lost 6-2 to the Tampa Bay Lightning, disappointing the swarms of Rangers fans at Amalie Arena. They outshot the Lightning 44-25, the most shots allowed by the Bolts this season, and were very good at 5-on-5 — Natural Stat Trick said they had 67 percent of the expected goal share.
“If I’m sitting here doing the presser for the Rangers, I’m sitting here saying, ‘Hey, we did a lot of really good things,’” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said.
Doing “a lot of really good things” was an improvement over some of their more recent games. But it was still a loss – and it marked the sixth time in 35 games that they’ve coughed up six or more goals – matching their total for all of last season.
Who’s hot
No one is even warm. The Rangers have been outscored 14-3 since their last victory, a 3-1 road win against the Dallas Stars on Dec. 27. Even Igor Shesterkin, their best player this season, is struggling – he was pulled in the loss to the Lightning 8:08 into the second period after allowing five goals on 13 shots.
Who’s not
The Rangers have lived off their power play for the past few years; now they’re dying by it. They are 0-for-20 in their past seven games after failing to score in four opportunities against the Lightning on Saturday and 3-for-35 in December after a 3-for-6 showing against the Montreal Canadiens on Nov. 30. Coach Peter Laviolette changed up his PP units at practice Sunday, dropping Mika Zibanejad to the second unit and elevating Alexis Lafreniere to the top unit.
The penalty-killers were leading the League until the Rangers hosted the Hurricanes on Dec. 22 and allowed a power-play goal on Carolina’s fourth of five opportunities. Beginning with that goal, the PK surrendered six goals in their next eight chances – three in four against New Jersey on Dec. 23 before being beaten by Tampa Bay on each of the Lightning’s first two chances.
Rangers lookahead this week includes …
Lots of travel to play lots of hockey, including a pair of nationally televised weekend matinees.
Rangers at Florida Panthers (Dec. 30, 7 p.m. ET; MSGSN, NHL Network)
The Rangers’ last trip to Sunrise was one they’d rather forget. It came on June 1, when the Panthers defeated them 2-1 in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final, sending New York home for the summer and Florida on to the Stanley Cup Final, where they defeated the Edmonton Oilers in seven games to win their first championship since entering the NHL in 1993.
Most of the championship cast is back, with center Aleksander Barkov and forward Sam Reinhart leading the way up front. Sergei Bobrovsky is 16-7-1 this season and 15-12-3 lifetime against the Rangers with a 2.83 GAA and .908 save percentage.
Artemi Panarin has excelled against the Panthers, with 30 points (eight goals, 22 assists) in 21 regular-season games.
Boston Bruins at Rangers (Jan. 2, 7 p.m. MSG)
These two Original Six rivals meet for the first time this season after the Rangers swept all three games in 2023-24, including a 7-4 win in Boston’s most recent visit to the Garden on Nov. 25, 2023.
The Rangers are 152-128-55-1 all-time against the Bruins at MSG. They’ve won six of the games that have gone past regulation in the past 33 years.
Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman has played superbly against the Rangers, though his won-lost record might lead you to believe otherwise. Swayman, who signed an eight-year contract with the Bruins just before the season, has a 2-2-2 record against the Rangers despite a 1.82 goals-against average and a save percentage of .937. Boston has been a tough nut for Shesterkin to crack; he’s 4-7-0 despite a 2.78 GAA and .909 save percentage.
Rangers at Washington Capitals (12:30 p.m.; ABC)
The Rangers hope for a better showing against the Capitals than the one they had in their previous trip to the nation’s capital, a 5-3 loss on Oct. 29 that saw Washington outshoot the visitors 46-19.
Alex Ovechkin scored his third and fourth goals of the season in that game, beginning a hot streak that didn’t end until he broke his left fibula against Utah on Nov. 18 in Utah after he had scored twice. Ovechkin returned Saturday and scored an empty-netter to wrap up a 5-2 road win against the Toronto Maple Leafs, then scored again Sunday in a 4-2 loss at Detroit. In all, 44 of his 870 career goals have come in his 74 games against the Rangers.
The Capitals and Rangers have split their past 12 games, with each team posting a 5-1-0 mark at home. Washington is 12-3-0 against the Rangers at Capital One Arena since the start of the 2017-18 season.
Rangers at Chicago Blackhawks (3 p.m., ABC)
You can bet the Rangers will be looking to avenge one of their weakest performances of the season, a 2-1 loss to the Blackhawks at the Garden on Dec. 9, when they generated little offense against a team that’s been battling to avoid the NHL basement all season.
Amazingly, the last Rangers goaltender to shut out the Blackhawks at the Garden is … Ed Giacomin, who was in net for a 3-0 victory on Jan. 25, 1969. A shutout would be great this time around, but the Rangers need a win of any kind against the struggling Blackhawks this week.
Shesterkin has been terrific against Chicago, 4-1-0 with a 2.00 GAA and .936 save percentage. Panarin, who played his first two NHL seasons in Chicago, has 20 points (eight goals, 12 assists) in 12 games against his old team. The Rangers have limited Chicago’s Connor Bedard, the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, to one assist in two games.
More About:New York Rangers News
Read This Next
