Daily Report – 10/27/25

Happy sports equinox!

Rangers

It’s getting late early for the New York Flat Shirts, who fell to the NHL-worst Calgary Flames 5-1 yesterday. Nothing is working for this mixed bag of a roster, featuring slumping stars, lost hopefuls, and overexcited rookies like Noah Laba, who scored his first career goal last night. The Rangers had a decent start to their first few games this season, defending well amid a difficult scoreless stretch, but the defensive lapse that typically occurs during a scoring slump has officially reared its ugly head.

“You just can’t be okay with coming out flat,” said captain JT Miller, who is doing his best to promote his team’s “will to win.” But he cannot carry his team. Not when his fellow stars, like Artemi Panarin and Adam Fox, are grossly underperforming. Not while Vincent Trocheck is out. Not while Igor Shesterkin is struggling in the net.

When the Rangers failed to generate sufficient offense against Washington and Edmonton two weeks ago, head coach Mike Sullivan urged his team to “stay the course.” Heck, after the Rangers lost their first preseason game, Sullivan harshly criticized his players to set the standard for the quality of hockey this team hopes to bring. But the roster that won the President’s Trophy two years ago is no longer intact, and the remaining figures are struggling immensely.

Panarin, who registered 120 points two years ago, produced just 89 last year and has seven in 10 games this season. He and Fox have been creating offense for their teammates, but it isn’t bearing fruit. What’s more concerning, though, is that this Rangers team was so traumatized by last year’s disaster – an epic collapse that occurred because players rebelled against the organization – that they quickly resort to old habits while struggling.

Just like last year, they’re falling behind quickly in games. They’re giving up handfuls of rush chances, including 12 last night, which led to four goals against. According to Steve Valiquette, the Rangers only gave up four rush goals in their first nine games this season, and they matched their season total yesterday. For further reference, each of the last seven Stanley Cup-winning teams has ranked among the NHL’s top five in rush defense.

“It’s an elemental aspect of playing defense,” Sullivan said. “To make sure that you control people’s bodies, and you play between the puck and the man. You’re fishing for pucks. There’s a lot of talented people in this league, so I just think we’ve got to do a better job at that attention to detail right from the drop of the puck.”

But the Rangers are doing exactly what Sullivan told them not to do: They’re not staying the course. They’re overcompensating for lost goals. They’re putting too many forwards in scoring position, so their third man cannot reset when the puck goes the other direction. But it’s also worth acknowledging that not every forward can defend the rush. Obviously, every player would prefer to score goals rather than defend, and reverse defense is the hardest thing in hockey. Also, the rookies on this team are realizing just how much harder it is to defend in the NHL than in the AHL or in college.

Former first-overall pick Alexis Lafrenière, who is in his fifth NHL season, looked lost on the ice last night. He was responsible for two of Calgary’s goals, one of which came because he was screening Shesterkin, and the other, which deflected off his arm and into the net. First-overall draft picks are always talented, so Lafrenière’s talent is not in question. One concern that still surrounds the Rangers is their ineffective development of Lafrenière and second-overall pick Kaapo Kakko, who was traded to Seattle last season. As a result of poor development and the collapsing team around him, Lafrenière lacks confidence on the ice, which has resulted in embarrassing defensive miscues throughout his career.

Additionally, the once-touted Brennan Othmann played his first game of the season yesterday, and on a grade-A net-front scoring chance – of which the Rangers had plenty – he double-clutched and shot the puck wide. Granted, Othmann has very little NHL experience, but the 22-year-old forward has just two assists in 26 NHL games. That doesn’t feel like the appropriate level of production for a 16th-overall draft pick, but it’s no surprise considering the dreadful team he’s playing for. He’s not getting much to work with.

Mika Zibanejad’s career took a turn for the worse last season, and while he’s looked more stable this year, his age is affecting his play. That’s not to blame Zibanejad, whose struggles were once attributed to a mental slump. It isn’t his fault he’s aging. He cannot sustain shifts for as long as he used to, and it has led to whiffs on his one-timer, which used to be his bread and butter. Last night, Zibanejad misplayed a pass that led directly to a two-on-one shorthanded goal for Calgary. It was the same mistake Zibanejad made against Toronto last week when the Rangers lost in overtime.

“I don’t know if it bounces over my stick or if I missed,” said a disgruntled Zibanejad. “I don’t know. But obviously, I need to be able to make a play on it. And then, obviously, they go the other way, and they make a good play. It’s frustrating.”

Without defensive intensity, it doesn’t matter how many goals the Rangers score. Teams already view them as easy to play against, and that’s a scary reality.

“It’s getting away from us because we’re getting away from a team game,” Sullivan said. “For the majority of the year, I think we’ve, from a defensive standpoint, done a pretty good job as far as being hard to play against. The last couple of outings, not so much, and it’s the same group of guys with the same concept, so we’ve got to do a better job.”

When the season started 10 games ago, the Rangers were searching for their identity. Now, they’ve found it: A lost, soft, bottom-feeding squad feared by no one and beatable by all.

And things are only getting worse on Broadway.

Knicks

A gritty win over Boston on Friday and a couple of injuries led to fatigue on the road yesterday as the Knicks lost to the Miami Heat 115-107. You can’t win every game, it seems, and while the Knicks’ defense was mediocre at best, their main issue was missed shots.

The Knicks shot 38-for-98 from the field while Miami went 38-for-83, and they also went 15-for-54 from three-point range. Jalen Brunson netted 37 points, but Karl-Anthony Towns went 2-for-8 from behind the line and OG Anunoby went 4-for-12, exclusively attempting three-point shots. The Knicks focused so much on fixing their scoring issues in yesterday’s game that they weakened defensively.

Head coach Mike Brown was quick to reference the many free throws and transition points the Knicks allowed. In addition to the 20 points Miami netted off 16 New York turnovers, they had 31 free-throw attempts on 24 Knicks fouls. After the game, Brown emphasized the importance of making cleaner defensive plays, but it’s clear the Knicks still have plenty to work on to adjust to Brown’s style of play.

“Obviously, there were some [fouls] where we kind of put our hands in and reached, and that’s more of a mental thing,” Josh Hart said. “Making sure you’re in those gaps and getting your hands out, so I think some of that was more mental than physical, and when you add fatigue, sometimes you resort to your habits. So, it’s a new group, a new coach, and we haven’t formed those habits yet.”

It’s good for Hart to admit his team still has work to do, and it’s more encouraging that he has bought into Brown’s methodology. The pace Brown preaches is the key to forming a formidable, consistent defense. If everybody knows their role, good things will come. It’s more challenging without Miles McBride or Mitchell Robinson, but Brown’s approach has passed the eye test so far. On Friday, it led to 21 offensive rebounds for the Knicks. Yesterday, it led to 54 three-point shot attempts.

“We just didn’t make [our shots], especially myself,” Towns remarked. “So, keep shooting, staying confident. We’ll have days like this if we’re going to shoot the three-ball as many times as we did today. You live and die by the three, so today we died by it.”

While it would be nice the see the Knicks crash the boards more aggressively and generate tighter forms of offense, there are benefits, especially early in the season, to playing a perimeter-centric game. It makes it easier for players to defend in transition, and it helps create more transition opportunities while playing zone coverage defense. Playing mostly from the outside of each zone effectively reduces the size of the court, making it easier to control the pace of play. Perhaps once the Knicks players continue to evolve under Brown’s leadership, they’ll be allowed to play a wider court.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, with Jalen Brunson on the bench, Miami went on an 11-0 run, holding the Knicks scoreless for over four minutes. Miami extended its lead to as many as 18 points before the Knicks shot back. Despite arriving in Miami at 2 AM, they put up a fight, reducing their deficit to five points with a minute-and-a-half remaining in the fourth quarter.

But then, Andrew Wiggins netted a 26-foot three-point shot, snatching back a safe lead for the Heat.

“We’re getting a lot of good looks,” Brunson said. “The ball is in the paint, making plays in these first couple of games. I have faith in us that we’ll knock them down.”

In this expectations-riddled season, it’s okay for the Knicks to still be learning early on. As long as they continue to strive toward success, they’re in a good place. That is, if Brown’s approach is feasible for this group.