"We are not going to stand pat -- a shift will give us the ability to be smart and opportunistic as we retool the team. This is not a rebuild. This will be a retool built around our core players and prospects. We will target players that bring tenacity, skill, speed and a winning pedigree with a focus on obtaining young players, draft picks and cap space to allow us flexibility moving forward."
I came into this season with an open mind. Mike Sullivan has the ability to take a very mediocre team and make it better. I expected the Rangers to rebound and make the playoffs due to a weak conference, even if this was viewed as a transition season. But there's a bleak Rangers future, and it's something very few of us anticipated. The Rangers weren't supposed to be this bad, even in a transition year.
The Rangers have recalled forward Brennan Othmann again. To make space, Anton Blidh was returned to the AHL. Othmann was reassigned on New Year's Day after the first wave of 2026 injuries that included Noah Laba and Conor Sheary. His reassignment then was due to bonuses in his contract making it impossible to keep him on the roster and still be cap compliant.
They are not a team. They are a collection of individuals. When you watch other teams around the league, their players do not act like the Rangers players do. Leaders taking unsportsmanlike penalties instead of back checking, not skating hard to loose pucks with an empty net, and the overall mopey attitude once down a goal are all unique to the Rangers.
Live From the Blue Seats is back at it tonight after the Buffalo game, returning to our normal schedule after shifting things around during the holidays. Rob, Dave, and Producer JL will talk the Adam Fox and Igor Shesterkin injuries, what it means for the short term, how it impacts their plans the rest of the season, and how the Rangers should approach the next month or so before the Olympics.
Alexis Lafrenière had three assists and Igor Shesterkin stopped 36 shots for the Rangers, who improved to 6-0-0 in outdoor games. Sam Reinhart scored for Florida, which was playing outdoors for the first time and lost for the fourth time in its last six contests overall. The Panthers gave up goals to Zibanejad and Panarin 64 seconds apart late in the first period, giving New York a 2-0 lead, and the Rangers kept control the rest of the way.
Remember that time Chris Drury sold James Dolan a false bill of goods after Tom Wilson embarrassed the Rangers in 2021 and got the regime changed? Well Tom Wilson certainly had a day for the Capitals after being named to the Team Canada Olympic team with 2 goals and a fight after taking Noah Laba out of the game with a clean hit. Yes it was clean. No response from the Rangers though, so maybe that Tom Wilson problem hasn't been fixed after all.
Is getting shutout 8 times in a season before New Year's Day good? I don't even really know what to say anymore at this point. It's the same thing over, and, over, and, over again with this group. They put up 5 in the third against Washington, but can't even muster a real chance against the Islanders. They are the most mystifying team in the entire NHL. What more is there to say other than this team absolutely stinks,
What a truly embarrassing loss to the Anaheim Ducks. So many storylines entering the day, but then to add to it, Mika Zibanejad was scratched for missing a team meeting because, from what it sounded like, he was stuck in traffic coming up to the practice facility. With all the drama heading into the game and without their best center so far this season, the Rangers played the part of shorthanded, mediocre team that can't score.
