The Rangers head into Saturday night’s matchup with Ottawa carrying a profile built on structure, shot suppression and a few heavy hitters at the top of the stat sheet. New York ranks fourth in the NHL in goals against per game at 2.42, sits tied for fifth in wins with seven and points with 15, and has 37 goals on the season, good for ninth in the league.
The blue line has done plenty of the work. The Rangers are second in the NHL with 319 hits, fifth with 180 blocked shots and tied for sixth with 49 takeaways. They’ve also been sharp on the penalty kill, going 33-for-36, which leaves them tied for second in the league at 91.7 percent.
There’s been a clear formula when New York gets ahead. The Rangers lead the league with seven wins after scoring first and have six wins when they carry a lead into the second period. They also own strong period-by-period numbers, ranking second in the NHL with a plus-six goal differential in the first period, tied for sixth with a plus-four mark in the third and seventh overall at plus-eight.
The offense has had its explosive nights, too. New York has scored four or more goals seven times, tying for the league lead, and has reached five goals in a game four times, tied for sixth-most in the NHL. At the other end, the Rangers have allowed two or fewer goals eight times, tied for the league lead, and have four games in which they’ve allowed one or fewer goals, tied for third.
Adam Fox keeps piling up assists at a pace that jumps off the page. He has 14 points, all on assists, through his first 12 games, with those 14 helpers ranking second in the league and his 14 points ranking second among NHL defensemen.
He leads the Rangers in assists and shares the team lead in points. On Oct. 22, he assisted on all four New York goals, passed James Patrick for 10th place on the franchise assists list with 364 and posted his fourth career four-point game, moving past Carol Vadnais for fourth among Rangers defensemen.
That night also made him the third Rangers defenseman in franchise history with three or more four-assist games and the seventh American-born defenseman in NHL history to do it.
Alexis Lafrenière has been just as important in the attack. He has a point in eight of his last nine games, with 8 goals and 6 assists over that stretch, and his eight goals tie him for fifth in the NHL.
He leads the Rangers in goals and shares the team lead in points with 14. He also has four multi-point games, tied for the most on the club and tied for 15th in the NHL.
Since the 2023-24 season, Lafrenière ranks third on the Rangers with 77 goals and fifth with 43 multi-point games.
Mika Zibanejad has quietly stacked up 11 points in 12 games, including 3 goals and 8 assists. He’s second on New York with eight assists and third in points, and his four multi-point games are tied for the team lead and tied for 15th in the NHL.
On Oct. 22, he moved into a tie with Walt Tkaczuk for sixth-most points in Rangers history with 678. He has also been strong on faceoffs, winning 53.6 percent of his draws, sixth-best among NHL skaters with at least 190 faceoffs this season.
J.T. Miller has given the Rangers a steady presence in the middle of the ice, with points in six of his last nine games.
He has 2 goals and 5 assists in that span, tying him for fourth on the team in assists and fifth in points with seven. His 113 faceoff wins are tied for seventh in the NHL, and among players with at least 200 faceoffs this season, his 56.2 percent win rate ranks third.
Since the 2024-25 season, his 59.4 percent faceoff percentage is tied for third among all skaters with at least 1,000 faceoffs taken.
In goal, Dylan Garand has given New York a lift. He has earned a point in five of his seven starts this season and in eight of his 10 career NHL starts.
Among goalies with at least seven starts this season, he is tied for sixth in save percentage at .915 and seventh in goals-against average at 2.30. His four wins are tied for 10th in the league.
On Oct. 13, he matched Igor Shesterkin and Cam Talbot for the fewest starts by a goaltender to reach five career wins with the Rangers at six. Two days earlier, he became the eighth rookie netminder in team history to win each of his first two starts of the season and the third in the last 40 years to do it, following Igor Shesterkin in 2019-20.
The Rangers’ physical edge shows up in the numbers around the roster, too. Will Cuylle ranks second in the league with 54 hits and third in the NHL with 906 hits since the 2023-24 season.
Sean Durzi is tied for ninth in the NHL with seven takeaways. Pavel Dorofeyev is tied for third in the league with 21 power play goals since the 2025-26 season.
Saturday’s game also comes with a few familiar links. Rangers players Will Cuylle, Sean Durzi, Tye Kartye, Spencer Martin and Taylor Raddysh are all natives of Ontario.
Mika Zibanejad played parts of five seasons with Ottawa from 2011-12 to 2015-16 after being selected by the Senators sixth overall in the 2011 NHL Draft. On the other side, Senators forward Shane Pinto is from Franklin Square on Long Island.
In Other News...
Wolf Pack Let Another Winnable Road Game Slip Away
The Hartford Wolf Pack had another road game within reach before it slipped away in a 3-2 loss to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in AHL play. Glenn Gawdin and Juuso Prssinen scored for Hartford, while Finn Harding and Tristan Broz also found the net for the Penguins in a game that stayed tight enough for the Wolf Pack to believe they could leave with points.
Prssinens goal gave Hartford a late push and kept the pressure on until the final minutes, but the finish went the other way and left the Wolf Pack still searching for a clean result away from home. They will stay on the road for their next game against the Hamilton Hammers, with the chance to turn a missed opportunity into momentum before the trip gets any longer. [Read more 🡒]
Alexis Lafreniere Is Carrying The Rangers At The Worst Possible Time
The Rangers have spent the last week learning how thin the margin can get when the goals are going in but the structure is not. Two straight high-scoring road losses in Toronto and Ottawa exposed the kind of defensive leaks that can undo even a productive night, and it has left New York leaning harder than ever on Alexis Lafrenire, who has been driving the offense at a career-best pace.
Lafrenires scoring streak has become one of the few steady things the Rangers can count on right now, which makes his surge feel even more important with the team trying to hold together its season through adversity. The problem is that individual offense can only cover so much ground, and with the current challenges around the roster, New York needs a lot more than one hot hand to stop the skid. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Home Stretch Could Expose A Problem They Can't Hide
The Rangers are getting a rare little test of patience this week, with two home games at Madison Square Garden separated by a five-day break. Los Angeles comes in Monday, Edmonton follows, and New York will try to lean on the advantage it has built at home while the schedule leaves plenty of time for the conversation around the roster to keep growing. Adam Fox has continued to drive play at a high level, but the broader picture has been harder to read with the teams uneven road form and the ripple effect of Igor Shesterkins injury still hanging over the lineup.
That uncertainty is especially pronounced in net, where rookie Dylan Garand has started seven straight games and given the Rangers a temporary answer, if not a permanent one. There is also interest around new signee James Reimer, who may be closer to the picture than some expected, and this home stretch could end up clarifying how much longer the club can keep patching things together. For a team trying to stay steady in the standings, these next two games are about more than just points. They may also expose how thin the margin has become. [Read more 🡒]
