The Rangers were struggling to keep their heads above water long before Artemi Panarin was sent home to sift through his trade options.
Three consecutive losses later and the 2025-26 season has fallen far out of reach.
Sitting 17 points out of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, as well as eight points behind the seventh-place Devils in the Metropolitan Division, the Blueshirts are drowning in demoralizing defeats.
It’s an unsettling time for the team, constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop.
That has undoubtedly weighed on the locker room and, in turn, affected their play on the ice.
There is cause for serious concern, however, for how the Rangers have lost their grip on certain fundamentals of the game.
“We take too many penalties, and they’re just lack of discipline penalties,” head coach Mike Sullivan said after the Rangers took six penalties in the 6-5 loss to the Penguins on Saturday. “Stick infractions in the offensive zone. It taxes some of our top players, because we use them on the kill. I just think we’ve got to be better in certain areas of our game to give ourselves a better chance to get on the right side of the score. I mean, I love our effort. I love our compete. That’s all there. Execution has to improve.
“Tape-to-tape passes on the breakouts, knowing what you’re going to do with it before you get it. The speed at which we execute is an important element. We got to get better at those things.”
With one game left before the Olympic break, as well as 26 contests remaining on their regular-season schedule, the Rangers are looking at a taxing finish to the 2025-26 campaign if the losses continue to pile up. Losing can — and will — take a major toll on a locker room.
Panarin’s absence is already felt, and there will likely be more lineup regulars departing before the March 6 trade deadline.
Equipped with five rookies in the lineup already, the Rangers — who already added 23-year-old defenseman Vincent Iorio via waiver wire Saturday — are only expected to get younger.
That’s one of the many goals of this retooling initiative, but with it will come the loss of experience.
That much is already evident in a roster that currently sports an average age of 27.64, which is the 11th youngest in the NHL.
While Gabe Perreault, Noah Laba and Matthew Robertson have shown flashes of promise, other rookies like Scott Morrow and Brennan Othmann have struggled to establish themselves.
Younger players like Will Cuylle, Alexis Lafrenière and Braden Schneider have been wildly inconsistent.
Matt Rempe has also regressed amid his ongoing recovery from thumb surgery, which has prevented him from playing the type of game that helped him make a name for himself in the league.
The slow starts are a reflection of the team’s lack of focus, but also indicative of a sort of greenness that is present in this lineup.
“I’d like to think we’re very prepared and motivated and ready to start the game,” captain J.T. Miller said after Saturday’s loss. “Talk about it all the time, but we’re not really executing that game plan. Other teams are getting out to better starts, so obviously it’s an issue for us … I feel like we’re ready to go. When we go on the ice, we’re ready to play the game. And then we get out there and they jump out to the lead it seems like a lot of nights. “
