Daily Report – 1/30/26
Rangers
The Rangers’ embarrassment never seems to end. Last night at the Garden, they fell 2-1 to the Islanders, marking the first time in eight years the Islanders have swept them in the season series. The Rangers were outscored 14-3, including two shutout losses, across four games against the Islanders this season, and for the first time in franchise history, they never led in any game.
Remember, we are living in the post-Panarin era, and the Rangers’ confidence is dwindling. Their determination is hanging by a thread. Their season was already over. Now, they’ve been drained of their top-tier status in the three-team hockey market of New York City. The tide has turned, and the Islanders are paving the way for the future while Rangers fans shred copies of Chris Drury’s letter.
It’s funny, isn’t it? How quickly hope can disappear. Rangers fans have been hopeless for months, but that empty feeling inside our souls hurts even more when the Islanders flash the likes of Matthew Schaefer or Vezina-bound goaltender Ilya Sorokin in our team’s face. When Schaefer was drafted, he predicted his Islanders would beat the Rangers whenever they played. That is exactly what has happened so far in his time on Long Island.
Rangers’ players may have felt embarrassed by their pathetic showing against their crosstown (and keep going) rivals this season, but they never showed it on the ice. Their roster simply lacks the power to produce a sufficient number of goals to win enough games to have a successful season. Truth be told, that was the case from Opening Night. Drury’s letter should have come two months ago, not two weeks ago.
Yet, the Rangers are coming up with intelligent-sounding explanations for their woes, the causes of which defy explanation. “I just think we have to do a better job at recognizing when to put pucks in play, but we also have to have a willingness to get inside with people more consistently,” said head coach Mike Sullivan.
“When we do it, we do it at times, and I think we create when we do. There’s an element of consistency. I think we can bring more to that. If we do, I think we’ll score more goals, and we’ll generate more scoring chances. We may draw more penalties because we’re forcing teams to have to defend the scoring area, and that’s the hardest area in the rink to defend.”
Doesn’t that explanation sound compelling? After all, it has been so much fun this season to cheer for the Rangers to score goals instead of when they score. Sullivan has offered fans more chants to add to the list, like “Simplify the game!” and “Create more off the shot!” Or one of my favorites: “Elevate the puck!” Or, more simply, “Shoot the *** puck!”
It seems fans have been screaming these simple requests so loudly that opponents overhear them, and they respectfully oblige. The Rangers, meanwhile, never listen to their fans.
Last night, the cheers of Rangers fans were overshadowed by the “Let’s Go Islanders” chants that echoed off the Garden walls. “We can score here, and it gets loud because we’ve got a lot of fans here,” Schaefer said. “They can score [at UBS Arena], and it can get a little loud.
“But our fans are way louder than theirs,” the rookie boasted.
Unsurprisingly, it was former Ranger Carson Soucy who got the goal-scoring started for Long Island. The Rangers traded Soucy to their rivals on Monday. He played the first two games with his new team against the team that traded him.
“For him to get a goal, I think it’s kind of payback in a way,” Schaefer said.
He gets it.
Soucy lit the lamp with 2:42 remaining in the second period, finding a hole under Jonathan Quick’s arm as he hugged the right post. 95 seconds later, Schaefer followed suit, acing a shot through traffic, so Quick couldn’t see it.
Mika Zibanejad scored three minutes into the third period, cutting the deficit in half with a power-play tally, using his terrific one-timer slap shot. That was the Rangers’ only goal of the evening.
“We had enough chances to score a few more and get a better result, but that wasn’t the case,” Zibanejad remarked. He added that the team is “looking for the positives, [which is] hard when you lose another game.”
In an effort to maintain positivity, several Rangers players were asked which dog breed they would be if they were a dog. The script writes itself, doesn’t it? It took Zibanejad the duration of the video clip to answer the question, and with tremendous uncertainty, he eventually replied, “golden retriever.”
“In terms of what personality, or what I want to be?” he asked.
Matt Rempe, the tallest player on the team, said he’d choose to be a daschund. This is what the Rangers have resorted to.
The puppy dog Blueshirts will travel to Pittsburgh tomorrow to play an afternoon game (3:30 PM, 2:30 PM CT – ABC). They will not play again until next Thursday, when they host Carolina in the final game before the Olympic break.
Schedule
Tonight 1/30:
7:30 PM (6:30 PM CST): NYK vs. POR; MSG, Gotham Sports
Saturday 1/31:
3:30 AM (2:30 AM CST): 2026 Australian Open, Women’s Championship – A. Sabalenka [1] vs. E. Rybakina [5]; ESPN, ESPN App
3:00 AM (2:00 AM CST): 2026 Australian Open Preshow – Women’s Championship; ESPN, ESPN App
3:30 PM (2:30 PM CST): ABC Hockey Saturday – NYR at PIT; ABC, ESPN App
Sunday 2/1:
3:30 AM (2:30 AM CST): 2026 Australian Open, Men’s Championship – C. Alcaraz [1] vs. D. Djokovic [4]; ESPN, ESPN App
3:00 AM (2:00 AM CST): 2026 Australian Open Preshow – Men’s Championship; ESPN, ESPN App
6:40 PM (5:40 PM CST): 2026 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series – BOS at TBL; Raymond James Stadium; ESPN, ESPN App
6:00 PM (5:00 PM CST): The Point; ESPN, ESPN App
7:00 PM (6:00 PM CST): NBA on NBC – NYK vs. LAL; NBC, Peacock
