NYR vs ANA: Mike Sullivan Postgame Media Availability | Dec. 15, 2025

NYR vs ANA: Mike Sullivan Postgame Media Availability | Dec. 15, 2025

even game for a lot of tonight. Just what was your evaluation of playing? >> I thought we played pretty well for certainly the first two periods. We liked our game a lot. You know, five on five. I thought we defended hard. I thought we we did a real good job of trying to play on top of them. They certainly try to play on top of us. That's the type of game that it was going to be. Um you know, we had some looks five and five. Obviously, the difference in the game is special teams. They get one, we don't. and then we give up one on the power play that you know that obviously we don't want to do. So at the end of the day that's the difference. >> When the power play isn't working in the same way when it is working you guys can generate momentum off of it. You know even maybe that spills into final five play on the other end when it's not working does it make it more difficult to kind of get into a rhythm in the game? >> Yeah it can. I mean, my experience has been that especially just coaching a number of um star players in the league when they when the power play the power play means a lot to those guys. And so when it when it goes well, it usually carries over to their five on five play, they build confidence, they they feel the puck, they get their touches that they need to get in order to to capture their best game when it doesn't go well. Um, you know, it's always that's always one of the challenges is to try not to allow it to to bleed into your overall game or your five on five play. But, um, so that been my experience just coaching a lot of star players around the league. >> Obviously, you don't have Ma out there and you don't have Adam either. So, I mean, your power play is a little bit diminished in terms of personnel. Um, you know, was there anything that they could have done differently than what they did? Well, I don't, you know, I they they had a few looks. You know, obviously we we've got a lot of moving parts on it based on, you know, the injuries that we've had, you know, the just the personnel group that we had in the lineup tonight. Um, so, you know, e even since Foxy's gone down, we've had a lot of moving parts there to try to find some consistency in it, you know, where um where we're comfortable with a a group of five. And so we've had a lot of different people and a lot of moving parts. And it, you know, obviously we'd like to settle on something until Foxy gets back in the lineup that gives us more of a semblance of uh of consistency that gives us a chance to build some chemistry. And so, you know, obviously for obvious reasons, we haven't, you know, we haven't established any consistency because we don't think that we've built any traction with with where we've with what we've accomplished to this point. There's been moments where I think the groups have been pretty good, um, but there's been moments where they haven't. And so, we're trying to find positions where we can set players up for success. Um, and we'll continue to do that until until we we settle on something that that we think gives us the consistency and the execution that we need. >> If I could follow up on the weekend just because I wasn't here this morning. Um, was it a one-time thing for him missing the meeting or had it happen before? >> No, it's it Listen, I'm not going to get into specifics on why we make decisions the way we made them. Okay. We believe strongly in a process that we've that we've put in place here for our team and it's as simple as that that we all believe in and we have a certain set of expectations that we all hold ourselves accountable to and at the end of the day that's what it's about and we all take ownership and responsibility for it. Mik and I had a discussion we made a decision and we move on. He's an important player for us. He's a terrific player and he's a terrific person. when on their shortanded goal when they got the puck it was true got the puck it's still a five on three in that situation if you guys have the two man advantage but the puck's low and it ends up sort of like a oneon-one the other way is that something that would naturally happen in that situation if they get a guy leaking out because you're pushing for a five on three you've got guys low there how do you see it >> yeah that's how I saw it I mean we almost score I mean Troach gets a gets a great open net chance. Um, and I haven't seen the replay, but I think I think the goalie made the save on it and got a piece of it. So, we go from thinking we score, you know, to it turns into a chance the other way, you know, we get in a foot race and, you know, everybody's tracking back and it ends up in our net. >> What did Matt Rumpy was he was kind of beating himself for the goal in the last 20 seconds, but overall thought he played well. What did you make of first. >> Yeah, I thought Rem's played well under under the circumstances. You know, we he hasn't had a whole lot of practice time. The reality is is we don't have a lot of practice time, you know, moving forward. We've we made a decision to insert him into the lineup. He's had a number of practices to this point. Um I think his conditioning is great. He's worked extremely hard uh to get himself in the position where he's, you know, his fitness level is really high. You know, we would have in a perfect world would have liked to have gotten him around the group a little bit more in more gamelike five on five situations so that he can, you know, build his timing and just the spatial awareness with having bodies around you and having to execute, you know, plays, whether it be a wall play or things of that nature. That that's part of the whole return to play process. But the reality is is we don't live in a perfect world and we don't have a whole lot of practice time. So we we made a decision to put him in the lineup and you know I thought he kept his game simple. He the one thing about Rams is you know when he's in the lineup he makes an impact. You know I think he creates I think he creates anxiety for our opponents and I think that's you know that's an area where I think he can help us. He gets in on the for check. He he leans on people. He goes to the net front. He makes it hard on people. He makes an impact on the game with the way he plays. hard to get into a flow as far as high rushes go offensively tonight and they're a team that defends really well against the rush. Does that make it hard for the team to get into like a mojo or a groove when you can't really beat the other team up the ice? >> No, I don't think so. I mean, I listen, I thought for two periods we really liked their game. You know, in the third period when they scored the when they scored at right at the very end of their power play, you know, it we didn't we didn't seem to have the push that we had hoped for down the stretch to get that goal back. You know, we were hoping we would we would get a little bit more push there, but you know, for up until that point, we really liked our overall team game, you know, and listen, the group has the ability to generate offense different ways if it's not off the rush. You know, I thought we generated we generated opportunity in zone, you know, whether it be, you know, starting with, you know, a point shot from the blue line with net traffic and creating off the shot and things of that nature. So, you know, sometimes that's how the game's played.

New York Rangers head coach Mike Sullivan speaks with the media following the team’s loss to the Anaheim Ducks.

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