The New York Rangers’ road problems kept flashing red Saturday night in Ottawa.
Fresh off a loss in Toronto, the Rangers stayed in Canada and ran into another early hole against the Senators, falling behind 2-0 in the first period before spending the rest of the night trying to dig out. New York entered the game just 1-4-1 away from MSG, and the start in Ottawa did nothing to quiet the concern around how they’re playing on the road.
Drake Batherson opened the scoring with his fifth goal of the season, and Tim Stutzle followed about a minute later with his eighth to put Ottawa in control early. The Rangers never really settled in during that opening stretch, and the Senators kept making them pay for lapses.
The second period only deepened the problem at first. New York got caught with some players on a long shift, and Batherson struck again just under two minutes into the frame, jamming in a loose puck past Dylan Garand for his second goal of the game.
When the Senators later had a man-advantage, they made a mistake, and Will Cuylle turned it into a short-handed goal off a strong feed from Noah Laba. But Ottawa answered right back as the power play expired, with the puck deflecting off Dylan Cozens past Garand for the Senators’ fourth goal.
That’s when the Rangers finally pushed back.
J.T. Miller pounced on a loose puck and buried it for his third goal of the season, and then Alexis Lafreniere cut the deficit to one late in the second with his ninth goal, coming during a four-on-four sequence. Suddenly, New York had life after looking buried earlier in the period.
That momentum carried into the third, where the Rangers spent the opening 10 minutes generating chance after chance and controlling play. They just couldn’t cash in. And when a team is already fighting its own mistakes, that kind of missed opportunity usually hurts.
Ottawa made sure it did. On a transition chance, Jake Sanderson scored his first goal of the season to restore a two-goal cushion at 5-3.
The Rangers answered again when Pavel Dorofeyev ripped home a shot off a pass from his new linemate Cuylle, trimming it to 5-4 and forcing New York to pull Garand for the extra attacker. That gamble didn’t pay off, as the Senators closed it out with an empty-net goal.
The final result left the Rangers with the same ugly road narrative. They’ve been sloppy away from home, and the mistakes are piling up fast enough to cost them games. The encouraging part is that the offense has been better on the road lately, but it hasn’t been nearly enough to cover the errors.
New York heads home next to face the struggling Los Angeles Kings, and Artemi Panarin will return for that one after the Rangers traded him away last season.
In Other News...
Rangers Must Avoid One Blue-Line Mistake Fans Have Already Seen
The Rangers brought Matthew Robertson back up from Hartford ahead of their trip to Ottawa, a move that says as much about precaution as it does about the blue line picture. With Sean Durzi dealing with maintenance days and his status still in question, the club wanted another defenseman on hand while Mike Sullivan sorts through how the pairings might look before puck drop.
Robertsons recall also keeps the Rangers flexible as they try to avoid getting boxed into a defensive setup that doesnt fit the nights availability. If Durzi cannot go, Scott Morrow is in line to potentially make his season debut instead, leaving New York to weigh both the immediate lineup and how it wants to manage Robertsons NHL games moving forward. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Have An Oliver Bjorkstrand Problem They'd Love To Solve
Oliver Bjorkstrand has wasted no time making his presence felt for the Rangers, even if his role has been a little smaller than his production suggests. The winger has scored multiple goals while skating on the fourth line, and coach Mike Sullivan has been open about wanting to find a way to get him on the ice more often. For a team trying to sort out its forward mix, that kind of early efficiency usually creates more questions than it answers.
Those questions only get sharper when depth is part of the picture, and the Rangers have already had to patch things together after Joe Veleno went down with a lower-body injury. The addition of veteran center Luke Glendening was meant to steady that situation, but it also adds another layer to how Sullivan can line up his bottom six. Bjorkstrands production has made the case for a bigger workload obvious enough, now the challenge is fitting it into a lineup that is still being adjusted on the fly. [Read more 🡒]
Wolf Pack Let Another Winnable Road Game Slip Away
The Hartford Wolf Pack had a chance to come away with a winnable road result in Wilkes-Barre, but instead left with a 3-2 loss to the Penguins after a game that stayed within reach all night. Glenn Gawdin and Juuso Prssinen found the net for Hartford, while Finn Harding, Tristan Broz and Owen Pickering scored for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in an AHL matchup that kept the Wolf Pack chasing the lead.
Hartford will have to regroup quickly as the road trip continues against the Hamilton Hammers. Games like this tend to linger because the margin was so thin, and the Wolf Pack now have to turn the page without letting another close one become a bigger problem. [Read more 🡒]