After an active offseason, Tuesday night was the first chance for the New York Rangers had the chance to prove to the league and the fans that this was a changed team. One that can escape from the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings and back into playoff position. Their first chance to do so was on the road to take on the Boston Bruins to start off the 2026-27 regular season.
Despite keeping the game scoreless for the majority of the game, the Rangers collapsed in the final four minutes of regulation, losing 3-0 to the Bruins. Goalie Igor Shesterkin stood on his head for the majority of the game, but he could only stop so much, and gave up two goals in less than a minute.
It's only one game, but after the gambles the Rangers made this offseason, fans expected some form of improvement. If there was one aspect of the 3-0 loss to the Bruins that stood out, it was the countless odd man rushes the Rangers allowed throughout the game.
Rangers allowing countless Bruins odd man rushes ruined any chance they had at winning season opener
While the Rangers did win the shots on goal battle for the game, that was mostly in the third period. In the first two periods, they were unable to get anything going in the Bruins' zone. What made that worse was the fact that the Bruins were able to break up the ice with relative ease, and had countless odd-man rushes and breakaway opportunities. It was a theme of the entire game, with Rangers fans undoubtedly cringing awaiting the Bruins to break through with a goal on said chances.
The Rangers were lucky that Shesterkin was in net, as he put a stop to nearly all of them. If it were another goalie, we'd be talking about the Rangers losing in a much worse fashion. The Rangers will go as far as Shesterkin will take them.
This is something that the Rangers need to clean up, and fast, even though they have 83 games left on their schedule. Some slack can be cut, considering they had a quick training camp and preseason, and even missed a practice after the power went out at their practice facility Let's not forget that there are new players that are getting used to their new teammates, such as forwards Pavel Dorofeyev, Oliver Bjorkstrand, and Eeli Tolvanen, and defensemen Sean Durzi and Marcus Pettersson. It will take a bit before the chemistry is built between everyone.
Rangers know they need to prevent allowing odd man rushes moving forward
After the game, head coach Mike Sullivan said that if the Rangers want to limit some of the odd man rushes by opponents, they will need the forwards to cover for the defenseman before their return into their zone.
"As I said to the guys after the game, if we want our D to be active off the offensive blue line, off the rush, things of that nature, then as a forward, we have to build a level of trust that we're going to replace that defenseman and we're going to stay out and stay above the attack until the defenseman returns," said Sullivan, h/t The Athletic's Vince Mercogliano. "We would replace, but then we wouldn't stay out. We would leak back in and dive back into the play before the defenseman returned. It happened four times in the second period, and that's how we gave up the types of odd-man rushes we gave up. I think that's a discipline that we've got to develop.”
Captain J.T. Miller believed that the reason for the seemingly endless odd man rushes the Bruins had was due to the Rangers wanting to generate offense through the defense.
“We want our D to be a part of the play a lot. That’s how a lot of offense is generated in the league. So, it’s just the timing of when the forward is going to come down and replace," said Miller, h/t Mercogliano. "We’ll get better at it. It's game one.”
It was the first game of the season, so it shouldn't be too much of a doom and gloom situation for Rangers fans. But for fans, they will without a doubt want to see the defense and limitation of odd man rushes on Thursday for their home opener against a Tampa Bay Lightning team that boasts the reigning Hart Trophy winner in Nikita Kucherov, and another tough goalie in Vezina Trophy winner Andrei Vasilievskiy.
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