Rangers must build on Friday's win, but they face a daunting upcoming schedule
New York Rangers defenseman Adam Fox (23) and Dallas Stars center Oskar Bäck, right, slam against the boards while chasing the puck in the first period of an NHL hockey game in Dallas, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez) Credit: AP/Tony Gutierrez
Friday night’s game started off the way too many others have for the Rangers this season. They were down a goal early, on the second shift of the game, less than two minutes in.
This one ended more happily than most, with them taking the lead before the first period was over, then holding on for a much-needed 3-1 win over the Dallas Stars.
After it was over, the players expressed relief at ending their three-game losing streak and talked about the need to follow it up with more wins.
“It’s nice,’’ Vincent Trocheck said. “It’s fun winning games. You know, it’s good to get back to this.’’
“Winning cures all,’’ Adam Fox said. “But it’s definitely on us to bring more performances like this, especially going back home [for Sunday’s game against Carolina at Madison Square Garden]. So we’ve got to bring that same energy and execution into the game against Carolina.’’
Of course, we’ve heard this all before. After their previous win, Dec. 11 in Buffalo against the moribund Sabres, the players all talked about building off that one. Then they went back home, got blown out by the Los Angeles Kings and lost the next night in St. Louis. Then they were shut out two nights after that, 2-0, by the last place overall Nashville Predators.
So no one should be fooled into thinking one nice win Friday in Dallas means they’re out of the woods.
If they are going to build off that win, they are going to have to beat Carolina and the Devils, two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, in a back-to-back Sunday and Monday heading into the Christmas break.
Coming out of the break, they’re going to Florida to take on two other Eastern Conference heavyweights, Tampa Bay and the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, to close out the calendar year.
Their first two games of the new year are home against Boston, currently the first wild-card playoff team in the East, and at Washington, the Metropolitan Division leader.
It’s a fairly daunting upcoming schedule.
The day after the loss to Nashville, the Rangers made their second trade in less than two weeks, shipping disgruntled forward Kaapo Kakko to Seattle for defenseman Will Borgen and a couple of draft picks.
A day earlier, Kakko voiced his unhappiness at being a healthy scratch for the St. Louis game. In his introductory Zoom call with Seattle media the next day, he looked and sounded as excited as a man who had just been released from prison.
It had been five-plus seasons with the Rangers that — because of a combination of injuries, mismanagement on the team’s part, some underachievement by the player himself and assorted other reasons — never turned out to be the success everyone hoped it would be after Kakko was taken No. 2 overall by the Rangers in the 2019 draft. A fresh start was what he craved, Kakko said, and he was ecstatic to finally get it.
That was a different reaction from the one former Rangers captain Jacob Trouba had in his Zoom meeting with Anaheim media after his Dec. 6 trade to the Ducks. Trouba detailed how he didn’t want to leave New York, but the Rangers forced him out.
Meanwhile, back in New York, the Rangers’ core, which had remained basically the same for the last four or so years, is starting to look a little different.
Borgen and Urho Vaakanainen, the player who came over from Anaheim in the Trouba deal, give the defense corps a different look, and 22-year-olds Brett Berard and Matt Rempe — who now faces a hearing and possible suspension for his major penalty against Dallas defenseman Miro Heiskanen on Friday — give the forward corps a fresh look, too.
But as the Rangers seek to pull themselves out of this nosedive they’ve been in — even after Friday, they’ve still won only four of their last 15 games — with 50 games to go, there still is a ton more work to do to get back to being a playoff team.
Mika Zibanejad, the now former No. 1 center, picked up another minus in Friday’s game and entering Saturday was tied for the fourth-worst plus/minus figure (minus-18) in the entire league. He’s had a miserable season, and he wasn’t great last season, either.
His longtime linemate, Chris Kreider, had an empty-net goal that sealed Friday’s victory, but he too has had a disappointing season. His name, along with Trouba’s, was leaked to the media as being among the players Rangers general manager Chris Drury was open to trading away in efforts to turn the team’s fortunes around.
They, and many others, must start playing better for the team to reverse its current trajectory.
K’Andre Miller should be back soon from his stint on injured reserve with an upper-body injury, and that will help. But the defenseman hasn’t been great (two goals, four assists, minus-5 in 28 games) in what is a contract year for him.
Reilly Smith, whose shorthanded goal kick-started the comeback Friday, has been a fine third-line player, but he was brought here to be a first-line player.
There’s still plenty of time to turn things around for the Rangers. But if they’re going to do it, they’ll need to actually do it, not just talk about it.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.