The Rangers got off to such strong starts at the beginning of the season that the team didn’t give up a single first-period goal until their seventh game.
Over their past seven contests, however, the Blueshirts have allowed a combined nine first-period goals while scoring only five. The high level of energy they had at puck drop earlier this season has steadily slipped, most recently resulting in a two-goal deficit by the first intermission on the way to a 6-3 loss to the Kings on Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
“The biggest thing for me was I didn’t love the start,” head coach Mike Sullivan said after the loss. “I just didn’t think, from a mindset standpoint, I don’t think we had enough guys that were ready to play from the drop of the puck. So we’ve got to fix that fast. The onus is on each individual to get himself ready for when the puck drops. It wasn’t everybody, but we just didn’t have enough.”
After giving up two goals on the first two shots he faced, veteran goalie James Reimer heard sarcastic applause from the MSG crowd for making his first save in a red, white and blue sweater.
The very first Kings goal came off a Drew Doughty leading feed to Taylor Ward, who split Rangers defensemen Sean Durzi and Marcus Pettersson for a breakaway goal.
Sullivan ended up splitting Durzi and Pettersson later in the game after they were on for the Kings second goal as well.
Durzi took some shifts next to Alberts Smits, while Pettersson skated alongside Braden Schneider.
“It was an accumulation of events over time,” Sullivan said of what led to the decision. “We felt as a coaching staff, for the first probably seven or eight games, Marcus and Durz were a pretty solid pair for us. They get hard minutes, they get a lot of D-zone starts against top players. That pair has been pretty solid for us. I think the last five or six it’s been a little bit of a struggle for them, for whatever reason. Durz is battling through some stuff physically and I’m sure that might be part of it.
“But we just felt to affect a little bit of change, maybe we’ll split the pairs and see what we get. It wasn’t a reaction to the game tonight, it was an accumulation of events over the course of the last probably four or five games.”
Ex-Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette returned to MSG on Monday for the first time since his April 2025 firing.
“I really enjoyed being here,” said Laviolette, who is now head coach of the Kings. “I love being at Madison Square Garden. I mean, the New York fans were just awesome. I can’t tell you how many times I was around the country and somebody would come up to me and say, ‘I’m the biggest Rangers fan ever.’ And I’m like, ‘They’re all the biggest Rangers fans ever.’ And I think they are. They talk about the history of how their grandfather took them to a game like 50 years ago, and they’re 60 years old and now they’re taking their grandkids. Because it’s been around for 100 years, you get stories like that. “You can feel the passion from the people and the fans, and it’s pretty cool to be in a city like this. It’s one of the greatest cities in the country. It’s a huge sports market. It’s Madison Square Garden. It’s the New York Rangers. There was a lot of things that I loved about being here and part of New York.”
Adam Fox skated in his 500th NHL game and extended his home point streak to seven straight games (one goal, eight assists).
