Rangers know this is no time 'to take foot off the gas'
Rangers defenseman Adam Fox sets before a face off against the Carolina Hurricanes in the third period of an NHL hockey game at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
It was a long time ago, and almost all the way across the continent, but it was against these same Edmonton Oilers when all of the Rangers’ problems started.
The Rangers were back in a playoff spot Sunday as they hosted Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the rest of the Oilers at the Garden, thanks to their 4-0 victory over the Blue Jackets on Saturday night in Columbus. But they had no time to catch their breath and be proud of themselves for momentarily taking the lead in the battle for the second wild-card berth in the Eastern Conference.
“No,’’ Adam Fox, who returned to the lineup after missing eight games with an upper-body injury, said after Saturday’s win. “I mean, we’re right in that mix. There’s no room for error at this point. There’s five, six teams that are competing . . . so now there’s no time to take the foot off the gas and say, we could, you know, let one off here.’’
Sunday night’s game was the opener of a four-game homestand featuring all Canadian opponents — Edmonton, followed by games Tuesday against Calgary, Thursday against Toronto and Saturday against Vancouver.
It was against the Flames and Oilers when the Rangers’ near-disastrous 4-15 swoon, which dropped them into last place in the Metropolitan Division by New Year’s Day, began.
In mid-November, they embarked on a four-game road trip to Seattle and Western Canada, and wins over Seattle and Vancouver in the first two games lifted their record to 12-4-1.
But in the third game of the trip, against Calgary, the Rangers were blitzed in the opening period, getting outshot 20-5 and outscored 2-0 in a 3-2 loss. Coach Peter Laviolette was annoyed after that one.
“We got outworked tonight,’’ he groused after the game.
Two nights later, things got even worse. The Rangers were outshot 21-9 in the first period in Edmonton in a 6-2 loss.
“We just kind of lost our way,’’ Fox said after the Edmonton game. “I think we keep reiterating those [poor] starts are just not going to cut it . . . ’’
It was after those two losses that general manager Chris Drury reportedly sent out a memo to the other 31 GMs letting them know he was looking to make deals, and listing Jacob Trouba and Chris Kreider, the longest-tenured player on the team, as among those players he was open to trading away.
When that story broke, it seemed to unsettle the locker room. The Rangers lost five straight, the last of which was a 3-1 loss at Philadelphia the day after Thanksgiving in which the Rangers were outshot 15-4 and outscored 2-0 in the first period.
A week after that, Trouba was traded to Anaheim. Days later, Kreider revealed that he’d been bothered by a back injury, and that might have scared off teams interested in trading for him. But Drury made other deals that have reshaped the roster on the fly.
He traded Kaapo Kakko to Seattle and sent Filip Chytil and defenseman Victor Mancini, plus a first-round pick, to Vancouver for J.T. Miller and a couple of young defensemen. At the trade deadline, he moved on from defenseman Ryan Lindgren and forward Reilly Smith.
On New Year’s Eve, the Rangers bottomed out. They had lost four straight, including two after the Christmas break to Tampa Bay and Florida, and were 16-19-1. But they beat Boston at home on Jan. 2, and things started to turn. Beginning with that win, they had gone 17-9-5 entering Sunday.
“It’s no secret, we played some pretty, pretty awful hockey, whatever that stretch was,’’ Fox said Saturday. “But we know the talent in the room, what we’re capable of, and I know after that, we’ve been, what, a top-six, seven team in the league? And I think that’s what we know what we’re capable of.’’
Notes & quotes: Igor Shesterkin started on back-to-back days. “Just the situation we’re in right now, we made the decision to come back with him,” Laviolette said before Sunday night’s game. “It wasn’t a real heavy night for him last night — not a lot of activity or work.”
With Denis P. Gorman
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.
