What else is there to say about the Rangers? This season has been absolutely brutal to cover. Veterans getting away with things that would get younger guys benched, like Vincent Trocheck taking two astonishingly stupid penalties while preaching in post games they need to be better, but not missing a shift. Or how about the Rangers always talking about how they need to be harder to play against, but they let the also struggling Ottawa Senators score 4 goals in the first period on home ice. At least they scored more than two goals, right?
Terrible dad joke in this title, I know.
With a 5-13-4 record at MSG this season, it is just one of those seasons where nothing goes right at home, and as the losses begin to pile up, the goals of the team need to reflect the results. Gabe Perreault finally got bumped up to the top six in the second period and proved he should stick as he, JT Miller, and Mika Zibanejad provided some beautiful goals in the second and third periods. This is the priority of the Rangers now, Perreault needs to reach his potential so the rebuild has a solid core piece to build around.
Perreault might just be something. My thoughts on Miller as a whole have been well documented to this point, as has my thoughts on the resurgence of Mika Zibanejad. This is the perfect situation for Perreault to play though when deploying 5 on 5. Mika and Miller both had a little extra jump when Perreault was moved up, and it led to a pair of goals for Perreault off some nice looks.
This is where Perreault should be playing the rest of the season, and any delusions of making the playoffs need to be out of Mike Sullivan’s mind. He needs to take the risk and just play the kids, because other than Alexis Lafreniere, the goals for the Rangers were scored by kids last night. Play them, take risks, tell the veterans to park their egos at the door because they are not performing up to their standards. This why the team is bad to begin with. Maybe it will give us something to watch for the rest of the season too.
Jonathan Quick might be cooked. After looking stellar as a backup, his early season play has disappeared and he now looks mediocre at best. The team in front of him hasn’t been good, but he’s not helping them out at all. This begs the question, what exactly is 23 year old Dylan Garand doing in Hartford? Spencer Martin is showing why he’s barely played, even as a third string goalie.
Garand doesn’t have a nice stat line in Hartford, but goalies are voodoo and that may not follow him to the NHL if the Rangers go this way. Garand might be their backup starting next season, so at some point you need to see what he has at the NHL level. The worst that happens is he doesn’t help much in net, and the Rangers revert back to the Quick/Martin combination.
The Rangers on home ice are 5-13-4 this season, and now since the winter classic have not won another game in 2026. As this disastrous season in a once competitive organization continues, it is becoming increasingly clear that the general manager at the helm of this sinking ship needs to be fired. Chris Drury went from being a middle of the road general manager to completely sabotaging any resemblance of a plan with his actions. The New York Rangers are a bad hockey team.
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