Rangers fans have every right to feel rattled after the last week, but the sky isn’t falling just yet.
Yes, the three-game skid was ugly. The Rangers gave up 12 goals in back-to-back losses in Canada, then stumbled again against the Kings at Madison Square Garden. That was enough to send plenty of fans into full panic mode, especially with Igor Shesterkin out and memories of last season still fresh.
Still, there are reasons to think this team is more than the mess those results suggest.
Start with the bigger picture: this is not last year’s Rangers. A year ago around Halloween, they still didn’t have a home win, even though back-to-back victories over the Canucks and Oilers had pulled them back to .500 by the end of October 2025. This group is only one game over .500 right now, but the way it’s getting there looks different.
The offense, in particular, has changed shape. The Rangers are scoring nearly a full goal per game more than they were at this point last season, and their power play production has almost doubled.
What makes that more impressive is that they’re doing it while averaging four fewer shots per game. The numbers point to a team that isn’t just firing pucks at the net - it’s creating better looks.
According to Hockey Reference, that shows up in the danger areas. The Rangers’ high-danger chances are way up compared with last year, and that’s a sign of a more coherent offensive approach. For once, the attack looks like it has a plan.
The losses themselves haven’t been as one-sided as the standings say, either. Monday night against the Kings had a weird feel from the opening faceoff, and Money Puck’s numbers back that up.
The Rangers were dominant at 5-on-5 even in defeat. The same kind of thing happened in the 7-4 loss to Ottawa, where the simulator’s “Deserve to Win O'Meter” has repeatedly favored New York more than half the time.
Toronto was the toughest of the three by the underlying metrics, but even there the Rangers kept battling, erased a deficit, and tied it at 4 with a little under six minutes left before a late goal in the final minute of regulation wiped it away.
That’s how a losing streak can fool people. The final scores say 0 points. The games themselves suggest a team that has been closer than it looks, and with a little more puck luck, there’s a version of this stretch where the Rangers come out with 2, 3, 4, 5 or even 6 points.
Then there are the players carrying the load. Shesterkin’s injury could have buried this team, but the Rangers responded by going 3-1-1 over their next five games.
That run included a second drubbing of the Lightning, and it came with 24-year-old rookie goaltender Dylan Garand in the crease. The 2020 fourth-round pick went from clearing waivers in preseason to becoming the team’s workhorse, and for four of those five games he delivered elite-level goaltending.
He has come back to earth a bit lately, but the lift he gave the team came at exactly the right time.
At the other end, Alexis Lafrenière is suddenly looking like the player the Rangers have been waiting for. The former No. 1 overall pick has 9 goals through 14 games and is on pace for 54. He’s also producing well over a point per game, which puts him on track for a 100-point season at age 25.
Adam Fox is making a case of his own. After dealing with injuries last season and being left off Team USA’s Olympic gold-medal roster last winter, Fox has come out with something to prove. He has just 1 goal, but his 16 assists account for almost half of the team’s goals so far, and that pace would put him on 102 points in 84 games.
If that sounds familiar, it should. The last time the Rangers had two players top 100 points in the same season was 1991-92, when Brian Leetch finished with 102 and Mark Messier had 107.
In Other News...
Rangers Are Stuck With A Painful Goalie Reality Right Now
The Rangers current goalie situation got a little tougher Tuesday night in a 4-1 loss to the Oilers, their fourth straight defeat, and it came with Dylan Garand once again in the spotlight. With Igor Shesterkin and Joonas Korpisalo both sidelined by injuries, Garand has been pressed into starting duty, a difficult assignment for a young goaltender trying to hold things together while the team searches for traction.
Garand had a rough opening stretch before settling in as the game wore on, which only added to the frustration of a night that never really turned in New Yorks favor. Mike Sullivan still sounded steady afterward, saying he believes Garand can rebound from the outing and stressing the confidence the staff has in him, a small but important vote of support as the Rangers try to navigate a painful stretch in net. [Read more 🡒]
Mike Sullivan Is Already Facing The Rangers Pressure Test
Mike Sullivan arrives behind the Rangers bench with the kind of expectations that come with this market, and he is stepping into a situation that has already been reshaped by Chris Drurys retool approach after a rough first season under Peter Laviolette. New York has spent the past year trying to steady itself, and the coaching change is only part of a larger effort to get the team back on track without pretending the pressure has gone anywhere.
The early signs have been mixed in the way Rangers seasons often are, with the club showing real improvement even after a major setback in goal and still hanging around the playoff race. Sullivan has already had to adjust to the pace and scrutiny that come with coaching in New York, where progress is measured quickly and patience is always in short supply. What matters now is whether he can keep this group moving in the right direction as the margin for error keeps shrinking. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Offseason Splash Is Raising A Bigger Concern Than Scoring
The Rangers went into the offseason looking for more punch, and Pavel Dorofeyev was supposed to be part of that answer. New York expected him to help tilt the offense with goals, but his start has been uneven enough to reopen a familiar debate about how the roster was built and whether the front office chased scoring before shoring up a more vulnerable area.
The concern is not just what Dorofeyev does on the wing, but what happens if the middle of the ice gets stressed. The Rangers have enough talent to keep scoring chances coming, yet the center depth already feels like a spot that could get thin fast if injuries hit, and that is the kind of roster question that can linger long after the early-season goal totals are forgotten. [Read more 🡒]