Despite the seven-goal goal Festivus the Rangers threw in Washington on Tuesday, the holiday month was short on joy and cheer.
A 4-4-2 record in their last 10 games sent the Blueshirts into a three-day holiday break without much more inspiration than the first 29 games of the regular season provided.
That record is as middling as it gets, much like the Rangers 2025-26 campaign as a whole thus far.
The obstacles have come in bunches and in all different forms. It’s only made the lineup deficiencies that much more glaring.
Then you realize the Rangers are just below the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. A mediocre Metropolitan Division has them right within striking distance of a playoff spot.
Despite a record-breaking amount of shutout losses at home, owning the fifth lowest goals per game average (2.62) and a plethora of injuries, the Rangers are very much still afloat.
Asked if the team is where he thought it would be at this point in the season, head coach Mike Sullivan treaded lightly.
“I think that’s a tough question to answer,” Sullivan said. “I went into this experience excited about the possibility of where this team could go — and I’m still excited about it. And so that hasn’t changed. I think this first part of the season, we’ve learned a lot about the group and we’re trying to go through this journey together to try to become the best version of ourselves and that’s what we’re trying to do. But, I think, there’s a lot of hockey that we played that we felt really good about our team and competed with some of the best teams in the league. And then there’s been other moments where it’s been a struggle.
“I think, from my standpoint, what we’d like to see is maybe a little bit more consistency moving forward with the competitive game that I know we’re capable of playing.”
And yet, the Rangers’ 14 road wins are the most in the NHL. Their five third-period comeback victories are tied for the third most and the team’s 2.69 goals against per game is well within the top 10 teams (seventh).
When the holiday roster freeze ends Dec. 28 at 12:01 a.m., Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury will officially be on the clock with just over two months until the March 6 trade deadline.
The retool, which somewhat began with the waiving of Barclay Goodrow two offseasons ago, will presumably continue.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see Drury pull the trigger on a deal that would shake up the Rangers roster, but the problem might be the value of the assets he has to trade.
No Ranger, outside of Mika Zibanejad (no-move clause until it converts to 21-team no-trade list seven days before the 2029-30 trade deadline), has had a particularly standout season.
Plus, in order to maintain the integrity of the team’s compete level, NHL-ready players would have to be coming back in most deals. It’s been widely reported that Brennan Othmann is available, while lineup staples like Alexis Lafrenière and Braden Schneider have seen their names floated in the trade rumor mill.
Lafrenière, who doesn’t have any trade protection this season or next, may be one of their top trade chips.
“I thought Laf had a strong game,” Sullivan said after Lafrenière scored his eighth goal of the season Tuesday night. “He’s such a talented player as we all know. It’s been a struggle for him most recently to score. I thought he had a number of really good looks tonight. He was hanging onto pucks. He was also getting inside the dots and going to the net a little bit more. I think that’s got to be a more consistent element of his game. I think he creates more offense if he does. He’s very capable. He’s strong and he’s got good stick skills.
“There needs to be another dimension to their offense and Laf’s offense and that’s something that we’ve had a lot of discussions with Laf about.”
