Coaching

Concern-o-meter: 3/10

Sullivan earned some criticism with Monday’s dubious handling of the goalies, but he’s mostly done an admirable job of repairing a fractured culture and forging a team identity. He hasn’t exactly framed it this way, but there seems to be recognition that the Rangers must play a swarming puck-pursuit game and maintain tight defensive structure to compensate for their lack of offensive firepower. It’s the right strategy given the personnel, with the team largely buying into their coach’s message. New York has gone from a team that allowed 2.68 goals against per 60 minutes at five-on-five (and 2.76 expected goals against per 60) in 2024-25 to 2.36 GA/60 (and 2.59 xGA/60) in 96 games under Sullivan, per Natural Stat Trick.

Pavel Dorofeyev’s slow start

Concern-o-meter: 5/10

There are two ways of looking at Dorofeyev’s frustrating start to his Rangers tenure.

An optimist will point to the quality of his scoring chances and his outlier shooting percentage as reasons to believe his luck will turn. The 26-year-old has scored on only three of 42 shots (7.1 percent), yet sits in the 99th percentile league-wide with 18 high-danger shots, per NHL Edge. He’s also hit iron six times (five posts and one crossbar), which is tied with Buffalo’s Jack Quinn for most in the league.

Center depth

Concern-o-meter: 8/10

On the bright side, the Rangers are seeing encouraging signs from captain J.T. Miller since making him their permanent second-line center. He has 10 points (four goals and six assists) in his last 11 games, with a 63.81 percent xGF that ranks first on the team, according to Evolving Hockey. He’s been especially effective around the net and along the boards, setting screens, winning puck battles and making plays from high-danger areas.

In an ideal scenario, he and Mika Zibanejad would function as suitable middle-six centers. I could envision an ice-tilting third line of Cuylle-Miller-Kartye, which would be a handful on the forecheck and grind out plenty of goals. But the Rangers live in a world where they need their 33-year-old centers to be more than that.

Anyone know if the authentic pro road whites are gonna have a restock on fanatics?? Tried to grab a 50 and they are sold out everywhere

Injury Update

Down goes another goalie. Tolvy is missing a second straight practice due to personal reasons.

Practice

https://reddit.com/link/1xgymv2/video/4map524nm1yh1/player

Media

It wasn’t fair to Reimer, a 38-year-old veteran who went from practicing with BCHL junior players a few weeks ago to being thrust into NHL duty following only one AHL appearance. He was predictably rusty one day after signing with New York, allowing three goals on eight first-period shots faced before being pulled for the second.

And it certainly wasn’t in the spirit of giving Garand a much-needed physical and mental break. The 24-year-old went from wearing a baseball cap on the bench to being thrown in the middle of an onslaught. He took a few minutes to get his bearings, surrendering goals on two of the first four shots he saw, but he responded by stopping each of the final 13 to prove he remains the Rangers’ best option.

“We’re trying to find a way to shore this thing up as best we can,” Sullivan said. “I think Dylan has given us some really good games, and as I said to you guys, his workload is mounting. And then for Reims to come in the way he has, in short order, going into a game like this, it’s not an easy challenge. It’s a tough challenge, and I just felt like the way the game was going, I just felt like maybe Reims needs a little bit more preparation before we put him in that circumstance.”

“I put him in a tough spot,” he added. “That’s on me.”

I lived in NYC for 10 years but never got to see them play at MSG. I live in Minneapolis now and finally will see not just my first Rangers game but my first NHL game. I'm sitting on the away side close to goal and was going to make a sign that said "Shesty be my bestie!" Now I won't get to see my boy in goal which is sad but I still love the core team. Does anyone have any good ideas for a different sign?

JT

• “Tonight was disappointing,” They expected better of themselves to start the game. It’s hard to come back in the NHL when you fall behind. 
• They know when they play their game, they’re a lot to handle, but they’ve been getting away from that the past few games. It’s good for them to get away from it for a couple of days. 
• They are lacking physicality. It opens the ice for them and they play better defensively. 

Mika 

• It was a bad first period at home. They but themselves in a bad spot and couldn’t recover. 
• They were slow everywhere. It was just a bad, bad game. 
• They’re identity has been coming from a strong forecheck and spending a long time in the o zone. 
• This is what they look like when they’re playing disconnected. 

Sully

• They’re in a tough circumstance with their top two goalies injured. Garand has given them some good games. He put Reimer in a tough spot starting him on such short notice. That’s on him. 
• It’s never easy for a goalie to come off the bench. Garand competed hard. He gave them everything he had. He needs the rest more than anyone else. 
• They didn’t have enough guys ready to play from puck drop. They need to fix that fast. It’s up to every individual to make sure they’re ready. 
• Defensively they were better overall compared to the games in Ottawa and Toronto. 
• It’s hard when you go down multiple goals. You start chasing the game and shorten the bench to try to get something going. It’s okay to go down one, it’s hard when you go down more. 
• Doro got less time in the third because of gameflow and penalties. 
• Pettersson and Durzi started the season well but have faltered lately. Durzi is playing through some things. They decided to try some different pairs tonight because of that. 

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It's a New York Times printing press plate from the Gretzky retirement paper.

Watching versus most other teams, they often pinch us hard in their own zone and are able to keep up with us for a while.

Meanwhile with us on defense, we stack up at the blue line, and if teams carry the puck into our zone or pick up the dump in, we can't keep up with them. Even old guys like Doughty and Panarin are outskating us, looking like Mcdavid, Mackinnon, Quinn Hughes, etc.

I get we have been a bigger more bruiser type team, and Sully seems to be trying a similar system to the slower bigger 22-23 vegas team that won a cup, it was working for a while, but similar to last year, specifically that infamous game vs Minnesota early last year, when you get us in our zone with possession, we just have super slow skating speed.

This isn't an issue with top speed in a straight line on a breakout, it's that our average skating speed is so damn slow, in a possession skill and speed based era where you can't be knocking guys heads off without penalties, it's a big problem to be this slow.

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Game at 7 ET vs Kings