NEW YORK — The start of year 100 felt eerily similar to many dispiriting nights in year 99.
The New York Rangers’ lethargic effort in a 3-0 season-opening loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday could be chalked up to a number of factors: adjustments to a new coach and new systems, the return of Artemi Panarin and J.T. Miller after lengthy preseason absences, and a general lack of execution. That said, one thing was clear.
“I think my first observation is, we got a long way to go to become the team we want to become,” said head coach Mike Sullivan.
The Rangers’ season-opening production came with all the fanfare: the late-afternoon “Blue Carpet” where players signed autographs and posed for photos with fans, and the pregame lineup introductions. For the club’s centennial season, there was more: throwback uniforms making their on-ice debut, and the official introduction of a new captain and coach. This was the night they should have firmly put their disastrous 2024-25 campaign behind them.
Madison Square Garden was loud. The crowd gave the Rangers the energy they could’ve fed off to start this year off right. Instead, they cheered louder for the New York Yankees during an unremarkable stretch of play in the third period.
If there’s one place to start, it’s the Rangers’ pace of play.
Rangers outplayed by Penguins
From puck drop, the Rangers looked disjointed. They were outshot by Pittsburgh 8-7 in the first period and 15-5 in the third, as they failed to generate much offensively. Many of New York’s attempts, it seemed, resulted in either a blocked shot or a turnover.
The Penguins led the Rangers in shot attempts. More glaringly, New York accounted for only 38.9% of the game’s scoring chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.
“Obviously, we want to be a lot cleaner in neutral zone breakouts and play a lot more in their end,” defenseman Adam Fox, who finished the game minus-2, said. “And they did a good job of keeping pucks in our zone.”
In the final minute of the first period, Evgeni Malkin outbattled Vincent Trocheck for a puck off a defensive zone faceoff. After Trocheck lost the draw, Urho Vaakanainen moved up to check Malkin as neither Artemi Panarin nor Alexis Lafrenière moved to check Brazeau, who was left wide open in front of the net.
Malkin slid the puck to Brazeau, who beat Igor Shesterkin with a quick move to his backhand.
Sullivan also felt that the Rangers were hesitant in their game. When asked, he explained that this was due to the Rangers’ new systems and a general lack of execution. That should be fixed in due time.
“We’re trying to simplify the process here,” Sullivan said. “Take some of the thinking out of it, so that we can hopefully overcome any sort of hesitation. But I think as we get more familiar, we should see a whole lot less of it.”
Opportunities slip by
Zibanejad was New York’s best forward on Tuesday. He finished with a team-high six shots and had the club’s best scoring looks of the evening — many of which came on secondary chances.
Early in the first period, he got a feed in the slot from Will Cuylle. He spun, but missed the net. Early in the second, a Will Borgen point shot hit the end boards and careened to Zibanejad on the other side of the net, but he couldn’t steer the puck toward the goal. In the third, on a flurry of chances off a Carson Soucy long shot, he missed high.
“The first ones are there,” Zibanejad said. “And we want the second and third opportunities too. That’s usually when you score, honestly, like the big chances, but [we] weren’t able to create those today.”
The Rangers also generated just three shots across their two power plays. And with Shesterkin on the bench for an extra skater in the waning minutes, the Rangers conceded two empty netters, allowing the Penguins to put the game away.
Sullivan clarified that he didn’t want to see more desperation from his team late in games — he doesn’t like that word. Urgency, he said, is a better term.
“We had opportunities to get on pucks and anticipate,” Sullivan said. “We would like to have more pushback, especially on six on five. We got a chance to keep pucks alive there. We’ve got to dig in.”
Lack of consistency
The theme that best summarizes what went wrong on Tuesday was New York’s inability to control play for long stretches of time.
The Rangers had moments. Late in the first period, Conor Sheary made a great diving poke check to rob Ben Kindel of a rebound. The Miller line had scoring looks. The fourth line brought physicality.
The Rangers looked more assertive in the middle frame. Coincidentally, it was the lone period they outshot the Penguins (13-7). But they followed that up with a lackluster third period in which Pittsburgh dominated in shot attempts (57.1% of the period’s share) and expected goal share (68.9%), according to Natural Stat Trick.
“It’s just not consistent enough,” Sullivan said.
It wasn’t, considering that the Penguins are one of the only teams that enter this season without a clear path to the playoffs. The Rangers will face another club stuck in the doldrums, the Buffalo Sabres, on Thursday. A 60-minute effort is the bare minimum.
