Daily Report – 11/10/25
Rangers
What will it take for the Rangers to get a win at home? Saturday night’s 5-0 loss continued a miserable 0-6-1 start at home for the Rangers, who couldn’t capitalize on a 4-1 road win against the Red Wings on Friday. It is as if the team has taken a literal face plant onto the Garden ice, because they continue to get shut out there. It feels like the Blueshirts will never win at home.
Clearly, the Rangers are playing tighter hockey at home. They’re shooting toward the corners less often at home than on the road. That’s because their heads are focused on the impact of past results, which has impeded players’ confidence.
In six of the Rangers’ seven home losses, they have scored a total of one – that’s right, one – goal. That means they were shut out five times in seven home games. So yes, the results have gotten to the players’ heads. And yes, they’re playing tighter hockey at home.
Against Long Island on Saturday, the Rangers were overcompensating for missing offense, which led to countless defensive issues. Despite 33 shots on goal, they allowed three goals off the rush. The fourth came on an Islanders power play, and the fifth came against a Rangers’ empty net. The Rangers are trying too hard to escape the neutral zone or score from their own end, so they have become extra susceptible to takeaways and defensive miscues. The tighter a team plays, the more defensive mistakes they make.
“We’re all human,” said head coach Mike Sullivan. “Our group is a proud group, so yeah, it wears on you. We haven’t won a game at home. If it doesn’t wear on you, something’s wrong.”
It’s true, the players care. The captain, JT Miller, slammed his stick in frustration many times throughout this game. The Rangers’ top lines took extended shifts and left everything they could on the ice. But it wasn’t enough. Not even to score just one goal.
“We say all the right things about keep trusting the process, keep trusting the process, but the longer you go without getting the result, it becomes a very hard thing,” Miller said, frustrated. “So, we need to be mentally tough. It’s a lot of zeros at home for us.”
The Rangers scored a power play goal on Friday, courtesy of Will Cuylle, who replaced Alexis Lafrenière on the team’s primary power play line. However, the Rangers’ 12.2% power play conversion rate ranks 31st in the NHL. Maybe Vincent Trocheck, who will return tonight from LTIR, can help his team improve on the man advantage, but it’s going to take more than that for the Rangers to overcome their home scoring woes.
The Rangers’ leading scorer is Taylor Raddysh, but three of his five goals came in one game. In contrast, Long Island’s Bo Horvat scored twice on Saturday, giving him 11 goals, the most in the NHL at that point. Despite this discrepancy between rosters, and although they failed to defend effectively, the Rangers generated plenty of offense on Saturday, including four more high-danger scoring chances than Long Island. But most of them came in the third period, when the Rangers outshot the Islanders 18-5. At that point, the Rangers were prioritizing shot quantity over quality, which made it even harder to overcome Ilya Sorokin.
“I feel like we’re pressing,” Mika Zibanejad admitted. “We’re getting away from our game. We’re gripping onto our sticks a little bit too much. We’re professionals. We get paid. We’re supposed to be able to handle it, but we’re in it. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We’ve just got to find a way.”
“A way,” Zibanejad continued, “to build a feeling for teams coming in here that it’s going to be tough.”
The only explanation for the Rangers’ disaster at home is their lack of confidence. They aren’t feeling sorry for themselves, per se, but they aren’t overcoming their mental hurdles either. Maybe Miller needs to punch someone. Maybe he has to start a fight. Matt Rempe isn’t here to do it, and it would mean much more coming from the captain.
The Rangers cannot come out of the locker room tonight without setting Nashville’s teeth on edge from the opening puck drop (MSG, Gotham Sports). Somebody needs to get physical. Somebody needs to start a fight. Somebody needs to score a goal. And the Rangers need to win.
For this team, one gargantuan question remains: Will the Rangers ever win at home again?
Schedule
7:00 PM (6:00 PM CST): NYR vs. NSH; MSG, Gotham Sports
8:15 PM (7:15 PM CST): Monday Night Football (MNF), Week 10 – Philadelphia Eagles (6-2) at Green Bay Packers (5-2-1); ESPN, ABC, ESPN App
