The New York Rangers have truly been unrecognizable for so many reasons this season, but none more glaring than the deterioration of their special teams.
The New York Rangers paid a huge price in their special-teams failures in what could have been a crucial win, but was instead a 4-0 crucial loss featuring two goals given up in the third period. Their performance against short handed goals in particular weren't exactly helpful either.
Let's breakdown how exactly the Blueshirts got their latest loss with four key takeaways from the matchup.
1. Power Play Failure
New York has struggled on special teams all season — and it was certainly another struggle for the Rangers in Saturday's edition of the Hudson River Rivalry.
“It’s the difference right now, right?” special teams contributor Adam Fox said. “The margin is so thin. I think five-on-five we’ve been pretty good, and you let up shorthanded goals, you let up power-play goals against, you lose games by one to two. Tie five-on-five or even win the five-on-five game, it’s costing us. It has been for a little bit now.”
The Blueshirts finished 0-for-2 on the power play, dropping them to two for their last 43 — a ridiculously unimpressive statistic. Want another one? They’ve allowed three shorthanded goals in the past four games, including one in each of their past two.
2. Third Time isn't the Charm
Overall New York failed for the eighth consecutive time to win three straight games. They haven't had a run this bad since November 14th-19th. Of these eight games mentioned, the Rangers are 0-4-4 in the midst of trying to claw their way into a wild card playoff spot.
3. No Matt Rempe
Laviolette mentioned Matt Rempe was making progress to the media on Friday in regards to a potentially seeing a return from the budding young forward after Rempe landed a pretty hard hit on fellow Rangers star J.T. Miller in Rangers practice that same day.
But, Rempe's status on Saturday was that he did not see any ice time and was still out with an upper-body injury. More bad news for the Rangers in what was already a bad game.
No Matt Rempe for #NYR, still out with an upper-body injury
— Mollie Walker (@MollieeWalkerr) April 5, 2025
4. Ripped to Shreds by Broadcasters
Former Rangers captain Dave Maloney, the team’s longtime radio color commentator said that the Rangers were done in by a “brain-dead two minutes” in the second frame.
This then set up this tirade from ABC studio analyst, former NHL defenseman PK Subban.
“Their power play is abysmal and everybody’s got to take responsibility for that, not just the players, it’s coaching as well,” Subban said. “You’ve got to put those guys in position to get better. … You’ve got to be disciplined with your structure. … You’ve got to outwork the penalty kill. They’re not doing those things. So, those are simple intangibles. No matter what skill you have on your power play, it ain’t going to work unless you outwork the other side.”