Rangers Recap: Windy City Dominance

Don’t look now, but the Rangers are 2-1 in 2025, an encouraging three games. The wins are important, but it’s how the Rangers have played that matters most. They’ve looked much better, especially yesterday, and Mika Zibanejad appears to be revived. They probably could have won against Washington, but they bounced back immediately and took care of business in Chicago without Chris Kreider.

Starting in net, Louis Domingue got a spot start with Igor Shesterkin on IR, playing fairly well and stopping 25 of 27 shots. The Rangers were able to go about their game and play what was their best offensive game of what feels like a millennium. The vibe of the team may be off–there is an element that no one can just quite put their fingers on unless you are one of the 20+ in the locker room–but give the team credit for coming out and playing well for a full 60 at long last.

Sometimes the best goals are the ones that come from the depth players, and yesterday was a depth win. Will Borgen got on the board after a tremendous shift from Mika Zibanejad, Jimmy Vesey, and Reilly Smith to create chaos in the offensive zone. The goal was ultimately unassisted, but make no mistake that Vesey and Zibanejad were a major reason for why that goal was scored.

Speaking of goals, it’s hard not to love the Will Cuylle-Filip Chytil-Brett Berard line. The trio brings the energy game in and game out to be a truly competitive scoring 3rd line, and now the goals are starting to come. Since coming back from the break, they’ve scored in every game except one. The chemistry they are developing has been a joy to watch, and the confidence in the trio can give us hope that the Rangers forward core these next couple of years will be left in good hands as the roster turns over.

With the Rangers next game Tuesday back at home against the Stars, it will be interesting to see if they can continue the level of play from these two back-to-back games. They aren’t out of it yet, but they are running out of time to make up ground. There’s a lot of questions regarding this roster as currently constructed, but in time, we will get our answers for the direction in which the team will want to go.