Daily Report – 10/21/25

Rangers

I’ll start this article with what I wrote on Friday after the Rangers scored one measly goal in a crushing overtime defeat in Toronto: Well, at least they scored a goal.

Last night, the Rangers scored their first home ice goal of the season. Thank goodness. Fans were beginning to forget what the goal song sounds like.

Now, fans are forgetting how the win song sounds. As it tends to go in the NHL, one goal wasn’t enough for the Blueshirts as they lost 3-1 to the Minnesota Wild. Effectively, the scoring drought on home ice continued last night.

After Artemi Panarin scored 57 seconds into the first period, the Rangers’ offense disappeared. The Rangers’ zone turned into quicksand in the first period because they drowned in it, getting outshot 16-6 by Minnesota. The Rangers were able to recover slightly in the second period, but they couldn’t generate any extended offensive pressure.

Ultimately, Minnesota’s first-period dominance set the tone for the rest of the game, and the Rangers couldn’t recover. Unlike most of their losses this season, they were dominated on both sides of the puck, and they defended poorly throughout the game.

“We knew we were going to play a team that was going to come in with urgency based on circumstance, and we didn’t match the urgency,” head coach Mike Sullivan said. “That was the challenge. We got outplayed tonight.”

It’s difficult to measure defensive intensity, but the Rangers certainly lacked it yesterday. The biggest fear for this team is that the longer their defensive efforts fail to bear fruit, the sooner they’ll begin to overcompensate for missing offense. And we’ve seen that slippery slope before.

“We’ve got to find a way to bear down on those tight 2-1 games when, let’s be honest, we didn’t deserve to win,” JT Miller said. But that was a game we could have stolen. It’s happened to us so far, just not good enough.”

While the Rangers certainly didn’t deserve to win yesterday, they were able to generate some looks in the second and third periods, but they couldn’t cash in on or extend any of them. At 11:53 in the third period, the puck deflected off the stick of a Rangers player on the bench. Mike Sullivan didn’t agree with the call, which led to a Wild offensive zone faceoff and a goal by Danila Yurov.

At 9:26 in the third, Panarin completed a perfect pass to Mika Zibanejad in front of Minnesota’s net, but he couldn’t elevate the puck over goalie Filip Gustavsson’s glove. The Rangers got another big chance at 5:57 as Adam Fox worked the puck toward the net while Alexis Lafrenière set a screen, but instead of shooting, Fox passed the puck too hard to his left for Conor Sheary to handle.

Fox hasn’t been getting much production from Vladislav Gavrikov, his defensive linemate, but once they were able to generate a scoring chance, Fox decided to go for a highlight-reel play instead of a game-tying goal. Fox has a great wrist shot. There is no explanation for his decision to pass the puck. For a team that has been struggling to generate goals for weeks, there is no acceptable explanation for wasting any scoring opportunities.

These Rangers cannot afford to force finesse plays. They must exert more physicality toward their opponents, and it will lead to more goals. The simplest explanation for this is that most goals in the NHL are scored off screens and deflections, which cannot be generated without physical play. So, the next time Fox has a high-percentage scoring chance, he should shoot, not pass.

Meanwhile, seven minutes into the second period, as the Rangers were killing a penalty, Noah Laba took a hard shot from Vinnie Hinistroza to the face. The rookie forward was bleeding on the ice, so he went to the locker room to get stitched up. Two shifts later, he returned to the Rangers’ bench.

Laba’s youthful grit should have energized his teammates. It should have been a wake-up call for them to buckle down and play with more determination. But the Rangers continued to play uninspired hockey.

What’s it going to take to get this crew going? What’s it going to take to infuse physicality into their DNA? They’re still searching for an identity, but the first step of the journey is a win at home.