Tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern marks the New York Rangers' first game of their centennial season, and it's against a heated divisional rival in the Pittsburgh Penguins, in a game that will feature new Rangers head coach Mike Sullivan facing off against his old team immediately.
It's the second consecutive season opener between the Rangers and the Pens, with last year's game being a dominant 6-0 win by the Blueshirts in the Steel City. Now, the two teams square off at the Garden, and Pittsburgh may be looking for some retribution, as they went 1-3 against New York that same season. In that four game series, the Rangers won 6-0 and 5-3 in Pittsburgh while going 1-1 back at the Garden with a 4-2 win last December, followed by a 3-2 defeat this past February. New York ended up being the 12th-best scoring team in the league that season, averaging just over 3 goals per game with 255 total goals scored, while Pittsburgh was ranked 18th in the NHL, averaging the same amount of goals per game, putting 242 into opposing nets.
The Rangers also allowed fewer goals per game than the Penguins, allowing the same amount of goals they scored, good for 19th in the league, while Pittsburgh allowed considerably more at 287, putting them 4th last in the league in that statistic. Neither side logged a single shutout through all 82 games of the season, and the Rangers were the more physical team of the two in 2024/25, averaging 24.5 hits per game, while Pittsburgh managed just over 20.
Players to keep an eye on
The Rangers' best player last season was left winger Artemi Panarin, the Breadman himself, who tallied 37 goals and 52 assists for 89 points. It was a significant drop in Panarin's previous seasons, specifically, his 2022-23 campaign that saw him eclipse 100 points in a season with 49 goals and 71 assists for 120 points, becoming just the 7th player in franchise history to do so, and the first since Jaromir Jagr in 2005-06. On the other end, veteran Sidney Crosby put up similar numbers to Panarin's, with 33 goals and 58 assists for 91 points in his 20th NHL season. This year will be the 21st for the 38 year old from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia.
Another strong player for the Rangers last season was the now captain J.T. Miller, who tallied 22 goals and 48 assists for 70 points, even after a midseason trade from the Vancouver Canucks. Miller had 9 goals and 26 assists for 35 points in 40 games before playing the remaining 42 back with the team that originally drafted him with the 15th overall pick in the 2011 draft.
Moving on to goaltending, Igor Shesterkin continued his excellence in net, posting a .904 save percentage, though that ranked him 22nd in the league. It was still enough for the 29-year-old Russian netminder to be named to Sportsnet's top 50 players list earlier this offseason, and he also has a brand new 8-year $92 million contract that will see him stay in Manhattan until at least through the 2033-34 season.
The Rangers ended the preseason against Boston, a 4-1 defeat at the other Garden, TD Garden. New York only won two of their six total preseason games, but fans shouldn't be worried, since many other teams had a similar performance in the month leading up to the regular season. Though Pittsburgh did go 5-1-1 in their own right, they obviously had the extra game, something the Rangers didn't benefit from themselves.