Daily Report – 10/15/25

Rangers

With a 2-0 loss to Edmonton last night, the New York Rangers – the Boo Shirts of Broadway – are the first team in NHL history to open their season with three straight home shutout losses.

Despite their scoreless streak on Garden ice, the Rangers have been playing a higher quality of hockey than they did at any point last season. The new coaching staff, led by head coach Mike Sullivan, has reminded this club about the importance of two-way hockey. That is, being able to sustain a high level of offense while remembering to get back on defense.

“The message was, ‘We have to make sure we don’t get discouraged because there’s a lot to like with our game over the last six periods,’” Sullivan said.

If last year’s Rangers started their season with three straight shutout losses at home, they would have continuously tried to overcompensate for their missing goals by forcing more offense, which would have led to less defense and more losses. Sullivan’s long-standing NHL experience and his confident and composed demeanor make him so crucial to this team. He must ensure his players do not deviate from their current game plan.

However, the Rangers, obviously, cannot win games unless they score goals, and there are things they can do to alter their goal-scoring approach without sacrificing their defense. The simplest way to do this is to crash the net and clog the home plate area more often. This makes it harder for opposing goalies to see the puck, and it increases the chances of screens and deflections. The Rangers desperately need both of those things amid this scoring slump.

Thankfully, the Rangers’ issue is easy to diagnose. They don’t need to change much. The evidence is how often this season they have limited opponents’ scoring chances while dominating in the high-danger game. The only mistake they made against Edmonton yesterday, as they lost 2-0 while allowing one empty-net tally, was a poor defensive play by Braden Schneider. He didn’t get back to the opponent’s blue line in time to defend Trent Frederic’s breakaway. But that happens sometimes, and it wasn’t an egregious error.

Meanwhile, the Rangers generated plenty of partial and full breakaways of their own, but they had trouble handling the puck at times, or they ran into goalposts, or Stuart Skinner simply robbed them. They outshot Edmonton 30-22 and generated an impressive 14 high-danger chances while holding them to just three. That’s remarkable defense, and it was a product of how the Rangers frustrated the Oilers with their rampant stick-checking and slot defense – something they couldn’t do last season. The Rangers are trying to make themselves hard to play against, and so far, they’re succeeding.

Things are more difficult without Vincent Trocheck, whose presence extends far beyond his individual offensive production, but the Rangers need to find ways to get closer to the net. They were shooting from distance against Washington and Edmonton in their last two games, and last night, by the time they made it net-front, they couldn’t get enough forwards ahead of Edmonton’s defensemen. While players like Adam Fox and Artemi Panarin, who have excellent shots, need to take more risks at shooting through traffic, it’s also important that power forwards like JT Miller and Will Cuylle work on their deflection skills. Chris Kreider used to do this brilliantly, but more players need to learn the air behind a well-placed stick.

“You can’t always control whether the puck goes in the net,” said Sullivan. “But what you can control is the process of generating looks.”

These critiques aren’t intended to be picky. The Rangers are playing excellent hockey. But when you’re in a scoring drought, exploring new options, if done wisely, isn’t a bad direction to follow.

“We just have to stay the course,” Sullivan remarked.

The foundation is there. The Rangers are constructing a new reputation for themselves. For now, the process is taking time to bear fruit, but once the goals arrive, things will begin to turn in the Rangers’ favor.

But the following cannot be stressed enough: The Rangers must not deviate from the way their current model. They must continue to play at the level they have now proven they can achieve.