After a near-perfect start to the season, the New York Rangers were sent back down to Earth on Thursday night, picking up their first regulation loss to the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, 3-1. This was eerily similar to last season's Eastern Conference Finals, where New York's historic year came to an end at the hands of Florida.
It's early on in the 2024-2025 campaign and there are plenty of more games to play. Moreover, New York sees Florida twice more in the regular season. But, here are three Rangers that failed to perform on Thursday night.
1. Victor Mancini
New York waived defensemen Chad Ruhwedel on Thursday morning, signifying Mancini's permanent place on the Blueshirts. In the early season, he was beating out Zac Jones for that sixth defensemen spot; with Ryan Lindgren's return, there's only space for one of them every day.
But, Mancini played the worst game of his young career against the defending champions. He was not able to make plays and looked like a liability defensively. Is it something to worry about? No. He just didn't play well.
2. Mika Zibanejad
He's been the center of some unwarranted criticism so far, but on Thursday night Zibanejad did not look good. When the Rangers lost to Florida in the postseason, Paul Maurice's top six outperformed Peter Laviolette's, and a reason of this was the line of Zibanejad, Chris Kreider and whoever New York placed next to them.
This season it's been Reilly Smith, and the line has gotten off to a decent start. But, against Florida, Zibanejad lacked the offensive skillset as the team's No. 1 center and posted a -2 rating to go along with zero points.
3. Ryan Lindgren
Lindgren did not look good in his second game back from the injured reserve. After suffering a jaw injury that saw him miss the first five games of the season, Lindgren was paired with the aforementioned Mancini on Thursday night. The bottom line is that this pairing did not play well.
Soon enough, Lindgren should be back with his longtime partner Adam Fox, and some of the bad play can be acclimated to him adjusting back into the lineup. But, against Florida he was a liability.