Daily Report – 2/2/26
Rangers
Saturday’s game was pretty nutty for the Rangers, who scored five goals despite just two second-period shots on goal, and still found a way to lose. In the third period, after Ben Kindel scored on the Rangers’ empty net to put Pittsburgh ahead 6-3 with 2:32 remaining, the Rangers lit the lamp twice more. Alas, it was not enough for a comeback, and the Rangers, who recorded 14 fewer shots than Pittsburgh, lost 6-5.
“I guess the only positive is we didn’t quit, kept pushing. Came down to the wire,” said JT Miller. “But when you have to score six times, it’s pretty hard to win the game.”
Did the Rangers fight back? Technically, yes, they fought back. But their push was too little, and it came far too late in the game. The Rangers struggled to maintain consistent possession in the second period, and Alexis Lafrenière, who had a three-point night, recorded both of his team’s shots on goal. Meanwhile, his teammates took four penalties in the second frame, including a holding call assessed to Will Cuylle at the final buzzer.
Pittsburgh took a 3-0 lead midway through the second period, and they started scoring just 2:37 into the opening frame. It took the Rangers over 18 minutes to get on the board in the second period, courtesy of Lafrenière on a four-on-three man advantage. The Rangers couldn’t generate any momentum off that goal, though, and Pittsburgh scored the next two. The first came 80 seconds into the third period. The second came 20 seconds later.
“You can’t, you just can’t. You can’t let up two goals in 20 seconds,” said Vincent Trocheck, who responded with a shorthanded goal at 10:48, part of a three-point effort. “We have to be paying more attention to detail. We were in the right spots a lot of times, too, like we’re where we’re supposed to be.
“We’re just not executing at our job. We just have to be better at that. It’s the same as giving up six goals, giving up two in 20 [seconds]. You just can’t do it.”
Head coach Mike Sullivan, who spent 10 years behind the Penguins’ bench before moving to New York last summer, said, “We take too many penalties, and they’re just lack of discipline penalties.”
This season, former Rangers assistant coach Dan Muse leads the Penguins, who rank second in the Metropolitan Division with 67 points. The historic Sidney Crosby era has lasted two decades in Pittsburgh, while the Rangers are scrapping their roster for the second time in eight years.
Continuing his discussion of penalties, Sullivan said,” It taxes some of our top players because we use them on the kill. I just think we’ve got to be better in certain areas of our game to give ourselves a better chance to get on the right side of the score.”
Taking four penalties in a period makes it harder for the Rangers, who are already struggling tremendously to score goals this season, to generate scoring chances. And, as Sullivan pointed out, the Rangers deploy their top-line players to kill penalties, and because of the limited number of offensive threats on this team, that issue has become more evident.
Imagine that? The last-place team in the Eastern Conference has worsened after benching its all-time points-per-game leader. Artemi Panarin is set to be traded any day now.
The Rangers and Penguins combined for seven goals in the third period, and after Pittsburgh scored two goals 20 seconds apart and Trocheck made it a 5-2 game with a nifty shorthanded snipe, Vladislav Gavrikov scored at 4:45 to make it a two-goal game. That was when the Rangers decided to remove Jonathan Quick from their net.
It didn’t take long for Kindel to find the open net, putting Pittsburgh ahead 6-3. But the Rangers scored two goals in the final 1:07, powered by two points from Alexis Lafenière and Vincent Trocheck, the remnants of Artemi Panarin’s former line, which, two seasons ago, ranked among the best in the NHL.
Lafrenière scored at 1:07, and Will Cuylle added another with 11 seconds left. On the subsequent center-ice faceoff, the Rangers tried to run a seam pass through the neutral zone, but Trocheck lost the draw. After that, the Rangers did not stand a chance at tying the game.
The Rangers have one more game – versus Carolina on Thursday – before the Olympic break begins. At least the Olympics will offer exciting hockey, something the Rangers have not done all year.
Knicks
Last night, the Knicks earned a statement win against one of the NBA’s top star-studded lineups. The world’s most famous players often find ways to post career-high numbers at the World’s Most Famous Arena, but the Knicks refused to let that happen yesterday. Not with a five-game win streak on line. Not with a controversial trade deadline looming in the distance. Not against the Lakers during the most anticipated season in over three decades.
In what might have been his final game at the Garden, LeBron James did not get to have his way with the Knicks. He scored 22 points, unable to best the 33 he posted at the Garden last season. Although Luca Doncic broke loose for 30 points and 15 rebounds, it was not enough to combat the Knicks’ production.
The final score was 112-100. Karl-Anthony Towns netted just 11 points, and Jalen Brunson 12 on just four field goals. The Knicks' offense ran through OG Anunoby and Josh Hart, who combined for 45 points. Landry Shamet added 23 off the bench.
Shamet drained six three-point shots across four quarters, and his steady hand put the Knicks over the top. He is the speediest guard on the team, and he can drain triples from the sharpest angles. All season, aside from the 25 games he missed with an injury, he has helped the Knicks’ bench command the pace of play.
“It’s gonna be someone different every night,” Shamet said. “We know that, and we have a group who’s bought into that. It’s about all of us buying in and doing what we can on a night-to-night basis, knowing it might look a little bit different. We’ve got a locker room full of guys who want to win and are willing to sacrifice for one another.”
In the NBA, excellent depth makes good teams great. Teams with deeper benches are more likely to be playing basketball in June. Last season, the Knicks were widely criticized for not having a deep enough bench, so they went out and acquired Jordan Clarkson, who, earlier this season, became the ninth-best bench scorer in NBA history.
Clarkson is no longer his head coach’s first selection off the bench, and Miles McBride was unavailable last night, but their leadership has helped benchmates like Shamet and Tyler Kolek reach new heights. The Knicks are also privileged to have Mitchell Robinson, the league’s best offensive rebounder, on their bench, which has undoubtedly improved their offensive production.
But these bench players are more than offensive depth pieces. They are quality defenders. Shamet and McBride are the Knicks’ best on-ball defenders, and Robinson can run with the league's best big men. Just last week, after Joel Embiid scored 28 points against Towns in the first half, Robinson held him to 10 in the second.
“That’s what we’re capable of. We have great depth, we have guys who can knock down shots, guys that can playmake,” said Josh Hart, who scored 20 points last night. “It isn't always gonna be JB or KAT’s night, but we have enough guys to score points. It shows that we don’t have to force anything.”
Brunson added a season-high 13 assists to his 12 points yesterday, and he finished seven rebounds shy of his first career triple-double.
“Shots not falling, you gotta impact the game somewhere else,” said the Knicks’ captain. “I kept seeing two [defenders], so I was just trying to make the right play at the right time, and we were getting good looks.”
Doncic, the NBA’s second-best assist-getter, combined with James for 14 assists. For much of the first half, they were acing lob plays for alley-oops. The Knicks held them steady in the second half, though, and they finished the game with six more assists than the entire Lakers’ team.
The Knicks also held the 29-19 Lakers to 44 points in the second half, four fewer than they allowed to the 23-27 Trail Blazers in the second half on Friday. The Knicks outscored the Lakers 38-26 in the third quarter, paving the way to a successful final frame.
“Second half, we locked in better with the gameplan,” Brown said. “It resulted in the Lakers scoring 44 points in that second half, which was huge for us.”
Despite a down year, Karl-Anthony Towns was named to the Eastern Conference’s list of All-Star reserves yesterday. In two weeks, he will join Jalen Brunson at the All-Star Game in Inglewood, California. This season, Towns is averaging 11.8 rebounds per game, which leads the NBA, but he averaged more boards last season.
“He’s leading us in rebounds, he’s second in scoring,” Brown said of Towns. “I don’t know how many double-doubles he has, but that’s impactful when you’re talking about doing it in a winning situation.”
Cover Image Courtesy: New York Knicks
