Five questions Rangers must answer after NHL break in order to make playoffs
Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin skates to the net after a break on the action against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second period of an NHL hockey game at Madison Square Garden on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Rangers pulled off another comeback Saturday in their last game before the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off break, once again rallying from down a goal in the third period and beating the Columbus Blue Jackets – one of the teams they’re battling for a wild card playoff spot – 4-3.
The important bonus in that game was that Will Cuylle’s winning goal, coming with 1:39 remaining regulation time, kept the Blue Jackets from earning even the consolation point a team gets from just making it to overtime. Montreal, Detroit, Boston, the Islanders and Philadelphia all lost that night, too, and all in regulation. And Montreal lost again Sunday in regulation, so the Rangers reached the break three points out of the last playoff spot, with 27 games remaining.
Can they make up those three points after the break, and grab a playoff spot? Sure. But there are some questions they’ll need to answer.
1. Is Igor Shesterkin healthy, and will he be himself?
The 29-year-old goaltender is currently dealing with an upper-body injury, apparently suffered in his last game, Friday’s 3-2 loss to Pittsburgh. The injury is supposed to keep him out 1-2 weeks, but luckily for him – and the Rangers – that timeline comes while the league is shut down anyway. Presumably he’ll be good to go when the season resumes. That had better be the case, first of all, and then, when he comes back, the Rangers will need him to be peak Igor. He’s 18-19-2, with a 2.87 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage right now, and he’s been up-and-down all season, especially since signing the eight-year, $92 million contract extension in December that’ll make him the highest paid goalie ever. He’s been vintage Igor at times, but at other times, he’s been just average. The Rangers aren’t going anywhere if he’s just average.
2. Will that surge Mika Zibanejad finished pre-break continue?
Not all of the Rangers’ problems are directly because of the down season Zibanejad’s been having, but frankly, a lot of them do stem from it. The former No. 1 center, who’s under contract for five more seasons after this one at an average cap hit of $8.5 million, has 11 goals and 37 points and is minus-24 after 55 games. He’s supposed to be a 30-goal, point-per-game player, at the very least, so he’s well off that pace. But in the five games leading into the break – the five games since J.T. Miller joined the team – Zibanejad had two goals and six assists. Most of that came as a right wing on Miller’s line, before he played third-line center against Columbus. If Miller’s addition has switched Zibanejad on – and if he gets an added boost from a successful 4 Nations tournament for Sweden – the Rangers would be in business.
3. Can they find a way to get off to better starts?
Nineteen times this season they’ve allowed a goal within the first five minutes of a game (that’s 34.5 percent of games, which seems bad). They’ve scored in the first five minutes seven times (12.7 percent). So they’re being outplayed in the first five minutes of games. They’re 5-12-2 when they give up a goal within five minutes and 5-2 when they score within five minutes. (There was one game where they gave up two goals within the first five minutes and scored one. They lost that one.)
4. Can they string some wins together?
Since their turnaround began at the start of 2025, they have gone 11-5-3. That’s good, sure, but they haven’t won as many three games in a row since Nov. 14-19. They’ll be playing most of the teams they’re battling against for a playoff spot down the stretch, so the opportunity is there to make up ground on their competition. A winning streak or two would help.
5. What can GM Chris Drury pull off at the trade deadline?
Drury’s done well at the last three deadlines, adding pieces who’ve definitely improved the team for the final stretch and playoffs. And he’s remade the team on the fly this season in trading away Jacob Trouba, Kaapo Kakko and Filip Chytil, and bringing back Urho Vaakanainen, Will Borgen and the biggest of all, Miller. But Drury had better have some more tricks up his sleeve, especially with all the cap space he has to play with. This team could really use a legit Top 6 scoring winger and maybe a big left defenseman. And depending on where Zibanejad plays, maybe a third-line center, too.
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.
