The New York Rangers finally scored some goals on home ice at Madison Square Garden, but it didn’t matter, as they suffered an 6-5 overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night.
Going into this matchup, the Rangers were coming off a 3-1 defeat against the Minnesota Wild, where, after the game, both Mike Sullivan and other players admitted that they hadn’t played to their identity and spoke about their performance in disgust.
To start Thursday night’s contest, the Rangers came out flat. A Sharks team that hadn't won a single game walking into the Garden, perceived to completely dominate the first ten minutes of the hockey game, and took a quick 2-0 lead.
“Very,” Sullivan somberly said of how disappointing the Rangers’ start to the game was. “It was disappointing.”
The Rangers stormed back in the second period to take the lead, scoring three unanswered goals from Mika Zibanejad, Juuso Parssinen, and Taylor Raddysh, but undisciplined play to close out the middle frame led to a goal from Macklin Celebrini with 5.8 seconds remaining.
The Rangers and Sharks traded goals in the third period to send the game to overtime, and Will Smith put the dagger in the hearts of New Yorkers, firing the puck top shelf past Igor Shesterkin, propelling San Jose to their first win of the season.
The Sharks rejoiced with youthful excitement, and the Rangers whimpered in misery after the game.
The mood in the locker room was gloomy, with Ranger players having trouble finding the words for their disappointing performance and lack of urgency.
The Blueshirts had no one to blame but themselves.
“We just weren't ready to play against a more desperate team than we were,” J.T. Miller said. “They just outplayed us. Didn't really respect our opponent today. It's just not acceptable for what we're trying to do around here.”
While the Rangers weren’t scoring a whole lot to open up the season, their sense of passion seemed to be in the right place, and they were playing a well-structured game at both ends of the ice.
However, over their past two games, the Rangers have appeared to backtrack on all of the progress made since Sullivan’s arrival.
“We took two steps backwards in the last two games, and that's something that we got to grab a hold of right away,” Sullivan emphasized.
The Rangers’ newfound defensive identity was encouraging to see until it disappeared over the course of this week.
Players kept preaching that the team must stay true to themselves and not cheat the game, but they failed to follow their own lesson on Thursday night.
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“We gave up, I don't know how many odd man rushes, but more than we had in the whole year,” said Sullivan. “I think it's a result of chasing offense, and I think when you start to chase the game, it just makes it hard to win.”
The elements of the Rangers’ game that plagued them for the entirety of the 2024-25 campaign are starting to creep back in, which is concerning to say the least.
Have the past two losses been a wake-up call for the Rangers?
“It should be,” Sullivan said about whether the loss to the Sharks is a wake-up call. “It should be because I look at our last two outings, and that's not the game that we want to put on the ice every night that we think will give us a chance to win.
“I don't think we played nearly as smart, the discipline and the diligence that we've put in from day one of training camp, becoming a harder team to play against, and priding ourselves on a commitment to play defense.”
The Rangers will be back in action on Sunday night against the Calgary Flames.