The New York Rangers, on paper, should be a better team than the one fans begrudgingly watched fall all the way into the basement of the Eastern Conference. The tone was set last season where the Rangers no-showed in their home opener against head coach Mike Sullivan's former team, the Pittsburgh Penguins. Madison Square Garden is known as one of the most famous arenas in all of North America, due in part to the legacy and huge sports moments that have taken place inside. But the Rangers fans paying tickets to those games watched the team lose their first seven home games of last season. Five of those seven games were shutout losses. The Rangers didn't pick up their first win at home until Nov. 10, with a 6-3 victory over the Nashville Predators.
The Rangers can ill-afford having a similar slow start to the season at Madison Square Garden, especially with the roster that is currently constructed. That onus falls onto Sullivan to ensure that this team is ready to go. The last thing they can do is come out of the gate stumbling over their own skates like last season.
Rangers home schedule to start 2026-27 season is a bit rough
Rangers fans should already know how the season is going to start. On Sept. 29, they'll be on the road to take on the Boston Bruins. On Oct. 1, the Rangers open up Madison Square Garden for the season where they host the Tampa Bay Lightning. That is going to be a tough performance, as the Lightning, despite losing the likes of Darren Radysh and Oliver Bjorkstrand this offseason, are still expected to be legitimate contenders once again. After all, they have the Hart Trophy and Vezina Trophy winners in Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy. Oh, and the Rangers will be playing them at home twice in the first month-plus of the season.
For fans curious, here is what the Rangers' home schedule looks like until Nov. 5:
- Oct. 1: vs. Tampa Bay Lightning
- Oct. 4: v. Utah Mammoth
- Oct. 6: vs. New York Islanders
- Oct. 11: vs. Vancouver Canucks
- Oct. 13: vs. Tampa Bay Lightning
- Oct. 19: vs. Anaheim Ducks
- Oct. 26: vs. Los Angeles Kings
- Nov. 1: vs. Edmonton Oilers
- Nov. 3: vs. St. Louis Blues
- Nov. 5: vs. Philadelphia Flyers
Out of those 10 games, seven of them are against a playoff opponent. The Mammoth have only gotten better, especially after they acquired Vincent Trocheck from the Rangers, which should make for a memorable matchup. The Ducks picked up a first-round win last season. The Los Angeles Kings are banking on a full season of Artemi Panarin to help them reach the next level and back into legitimate Stanley Cup contention. The Edmonton Oilers have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl ... enough said. Then, there are the Philadelphia Flyers, who shocked the world from going from potential lottery team to advancing to the second round of the playoffs, thanks in part to their savvy additions of Trevor Zegras and Dan Vladar, while their young prospects and players helping them out.
It's not the easiest home stretch for the Rangers, but there's no way they can replicate how poorly they started off last season.
Rangers are banking on Chris Drury's big moves to pan out, and Mike Sullivan to deploy them correctly
When looking at the term "retool," some fans may have rolled their eyes at the team going for a "half-measure" approach. Either commit to a full-force effort to build a contender or go through a full-on rebuild. But this offseason, Drury brought in win-now players while also bringing in some much-needed prospects to replenish their farm system.
The defense should be significantly better with the additions of Sean Durzi and Marcus Pettersson via trades with the Mammoth and Canucks, respectively. Those two should be locked in as their second pair of defensemen. Not to mention, the Rangers drafted Alberts Smits with the fifth-overall selection, and it's only a matter of time he gets his shot in New York.
Forward is a bit of a question mark. Drury traded away Panarin, who was set to be a free agent this summer, and Trocheck, who had multiple years remaining on his contract. His big move of the offseason was to trade multiple first round picks to the Vegas Golden Knights for winger Pavel Dorofeyev. The Rangers are banking that his production can remain the same when outside of the star-studded Vegas system, as evidenced by his $11 million annual salary over a seven-year contract. The hope is that he can put up 30-plus goal seasons alongside the likes of centers Mika Zibanejad or J.T. Miller. Quite honestly, they're going to need him to jell with the top centers on the Rangers if they want to have any hope of thriving immediately this upcoming season.
The lack of scoring last year, frankly, sent the Rangers into an early hole. As mentioned earlier, they were shut out in five of their first seven home games last season. The Rangers, being more of a complete team as compared to last season, should not face a similar situation, regardless if their schedule is tough or not. It's up to Sullivan to find the right line combinations to ensure they can thrive and take advantage of defensive assignments and to catch the opposing goalie off guard.
Look, Sullivan was brought in to turn the team around back into legitimate Stanley Cup contenders. If he can't get this group of players to get off to a strong start to the season, fan trust will hit an all-time low.
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