Islanders Defeat Rangers 5-0 At The Garden | New York Rangers

Islanders Defeat Rangers 5-0 At The Garden | New York Rangers

on yet another night of long faces and short tempers. The long and short of it is this. The Rangers lose their seventh consecutive home game to start the season. That extends their franchise record. It ties their record for the longest home losing streak of any kind at any time. 5 nothing loss to the Islanders here at the Garden. Welcome to the Mercedes-Benz Rangers postgame show. Alongside Steve Valette, I’m John Gome. It’s going to continue to be a narrative, Steve, until the script is rewritten. They cannot win on home ice. No matter what they did before, no matter what comes after, they just have not been able to break through at the Garden. The fifth time they’ve been shut out at home in seven games. I thought they broke uh three cardinal rules of hockey in that game, and that is not working through the game. They started off great. I thought the first 10 minutes this team was going to roll through this game and have a night like they had last night. So, I thought their work ethic was lousy in the game. Okay. Number two is they’re not very coachable right now. Why am I saying that? Because it would be an easy game plan against the Islanders offensively if you ran the puck low to high, got to the middle of the ice, and shot from the middle of the ice because netfront, the Islanders are the weakest team in the league at defending their own blue paint. I didn’t see any shots through the most important minutes of that period. Uh I would say from 10 minutes of first period all the way through second period, maybe around the seven minute mark of third period, they started playing hockey. Uh Cardinal rule number three, they got frustrated and visibly frustrated from their leadership guys. It’s not a good look, John. You can’t lose your composure. In my lifetime in hockey, I’ve never seen anybody improve when they get frustrated. It’s like it stops dead in its tracks. Everything does. But the counter narative the counternarrative though, Steve, can be you want to see that kind of passion. You want to see that kind of anger. You want to see that kind of frustration when things continue to not go your way at home. Not that it’s going to make it better. Not necessarily. But it’s human. It has to be human. You know what? I say no to that because here’s the thing. Work on it in practice. Like to me, to be honest and fair, I don’t think enough of the Rangers worked on their shot all summer. Like I’m just not seeing I’m not seeing one-times from either flank. I’m not seeing quick releases off of first touch. I’m not seeing any corners hit tonight again. There was a lot of bread basket. That looked like a group of guys that haven’t been working on their shot, John. Like it’s a that’s a tough That was a tough watch. And what’s worse, it was quiet out there. That was the quietest rivalry game I’ve ever seen. Yeah. And it got quiet after a very powerful, as you said, strong start from the Rangers in the first 10 minutes or so. But again, the self-fulfilling element of they don’t score in those first 10 minutes, they don’t get validated for their hard work and given what a razor’s edge it is here at. So, you’re going to get frustrated. Is that what’s going to happen? But that has been what happened. So, that’s what happens. You get frustrated in 10 minutes. 10 minutes of hockey is going to frustrate you at a 60 like that can’t unravel you. Look, this is this is a game that’s going to push the best every night in this league. And everybody anybody with their salt knows that they play through it. It’s next man up and you go. And look, Laba, he started this game for the team in a way that to me had some contagious elements to it. Zabanagette hits the crossbar, he misses a one-timer. But you know what? It’s next man up. None of that. You know, don’t don’t let that get into your game. And you know, here’s the thing. The captain does it, the leadership guys do it. Guess what? Everybody thinks it’s okay. Then you’re going to see Lava starting to slam the door and break sticks. Is that a good look for the young guys? No. These guys have to cover up from a lot of what went wrong out there and uh and sort this out. Well, let’s see what the message is inside the dressing room. Let’s hear from the captain, JT Miller. Bill Pedo working the room as we begin the postgame reaction after the five nothing loss to the Islanders here at the Garden. JT, your reaction. What happened out there tonight? Oh, it’s frustrating. Uh disappointing. We can’t put together a good, you know, we’ve had some good nights at home and some that weren’t. I mean, we kind of shot ourselves in the foot today. Too many twoon- ones. Uh, we don’t capitalize on our looks. Probably pressing a little bit, give up odd man breaks, and they capitalized the best rush team in the league, I think. So, uh, we knew that. And, um, like I said, shot ourselves in the foot a little bit. Some of this becoming psychological at home, like it builds on itself based on what’s happening coming into the games. I mean, yeah, we’re humans. It’s hard. Uh, we all care. It’s not like it’s uh it’s not like it’s an effort-based thing. You know, most of the time we we started ready on time again today. Had a great start and then get a little careless with some decisions and and it cost us and then you press because, you know, it’s a lot of uh it’s a lot of zeros at home for us and I think it’s it’s just like I said, we’re only human. It’s frustrating, but we got to be able to stay the course and not give them easy ones like that. How significant is it that you seem to be getting the better of the play when the games start and yet you don’t have anything on the scoreboard to show for it? Well, that’s the that’s the part where you you know we say all the right things about keep trust in the process, trust in the process, but the longer you go without getting the result, it becomes a very hard thing. So, we need to be mentally tough. Don’t point fingers. It’s on us. Um and you know, let it soak a little tomorrow and we need to be ready to go on Monday because it’s game time again. So, um you know, today we just like I said, we shot ourselves in the foot probably partly because we don’t get our rewarded for the looks that we do have. We need to be mentally tough and regroup. JT, all that being said, you’re still seven and seven, so you’re still right in a decent shape, right? I mean, yeah, this isn’t a panic by any means. Do we want to win at home? Yeah. Uh, it sucks. Um, we take a lot of pride in here in this room. Not one guy feels good about this, but once again, we had a chance tonight with the way we started the game to put some pucks in the net. We don’t capitalize, and then they do, and sucks. So JT Miller three times using the phrase shot ourselves in the foot and also talked about mental toughness and then spoke about how the Islanders are the best rush team in his opinion in the NHL and that the Rangers might have played right into their hands. He’s right. Uh the Islanders had 24 rush goals coming into this game. That was the most in the league. They had three in this game. But John, the three were the same three. John, I’m telling you, you can’t jump anybody in this league into the circle. It’s a trigger for them to pass. It’s so easy if I get really close to you to pass through me. And you need to fade off here. Well, certainly you don’t want the rush to happen. And if it happens, Gabricov has to back up here. Give Shurken the shot on this one here. Fox back up. Have your left skate in the circle only, not both skates at dot. And that’s a free pass across. Uh the fourth goal of the game was also uh the empty netter and then the fifth goal was uh oddman. But it’s the same mistake three times. Those were three passes across to date. The Rangers now 11 twoon-one passes across this year. Six goals on the pass. All right, it’s more than 50%. Let’s give the goalie the shot. The goalie when a goalie has the shot on a twoon-one. Shurken probably an 18% chance to score. I’m going to take that. It’s 47% if you put it across, especially downhill on him. He doesn’t even have a chance to rotate and get across. So, that’s not the pre-cout. If you know it’s a good rush team, right? Know what the game plan is to defend it. The other end of the ice, I sroken gets his 23rd shut out, 30 saves. What do you think your advanced analytics are going to show tomorrow for how many goals the Rangers should have scored? Okay, so in the first in the first 10 minutes, I thought they had three great A’s, right? The seven minute mark of the third period, a couple. So, maybe two. Maybe two. But how cold did they go for 40 minutes, right? That’s that was the game. That was the game. I mean, these guys I understand the frustration now, but in the moment, they’ve got to stay focused here, John. Like, this is a story that’s become leaguewide now. And that’s the worst thing to go through at the beginning of a season where there’s so much attention on this stuff. And everybody in the league is talking about the Rangers being that great on the road, but that miserable at home. You don’t want that to eat into your season the way it has. Rangers lost seven straight in December of 76. They lost seven straight in April of 93. They’ve lost seven straight out of the gate at home here in 2025. Let’s hear from defenseman Adam Fox after the five nothing loss. Um I don’t know if it defines anything. I think we’re just, you know, playing like a different team home and home and away. Um, you know, got to got to figure that and got to find a way to to get wins at home because, you know, it’s hurting us right now. Do you sense that you guys are playing differently or is it just you’re not getting the conversions off some chances that could change the tone of these games? Probably a little bit of both, right? Um, you know, I think we get the chances and, you know, especially early, we’ve had some good starts, but, you know, maybe you’re just gripping the stick a little more subconsciously and pressing a little more and, you know, giving up that many oddman rushes, you know, that’s not the team we’ve we want to be, who we who we’ve played like, and um, you know, they’re a team that’s going to capitalize on that. So, um, yeah, we just, you know, got to got to be a lot better. I think we’ve talked enough about it. So, just got to go out and and execute really. What’s causing the iPen rushes? Um, yeah, I think I mean there’s different reasons for for how an automat rush could happen. I mean, maybe miscommunication, maybe um, you know, not managing the puck in in the right places. So, um, you I think got to be better in those areas. Does this start to become psychological when this starts to go like this game after game at home? Uh, I don’t know really. I mean, yeah, maybe. I mean, um, you know, I think one way or another, we got to find a way to to get some wins at home ice. It’s it’s like I said, it’s it’s hurting us right now and uh we’re playing like completely different team than than how we are on the road. So, um you know, we get another opportunity soon soon coming up. So, I think that’s where we really got to, you know, put our focus and and you know, do what it takes to to get a win and play a lot better here. Admitting to the psychological elements of losing this many straight home games out of the gate. didn’t want to at first, but you know, yeah, look, expectations, I think, are the hardest things for athletes to work with, whether they’re playing under a big contract or you’re a championship supposed to be team at this point. Now, it’s winning at home. Can you imagine the expectations for their next game, their eighth home game coming in on Monday, how they’re going to feel playing against Nashville and how much pressure is on them, a game they’re supposed to win. It’s going to be a tough few nights sleep here until you get there.

For the 5th time in 7 games the New York Rangers have been shutout at The Garden. Ilya Sorokin made 30 saves in his first shutout of the season for the Islanders and Bo Horvat scored twice, his 11 goals this season is tied for first in the NHL. Rangers look to end the home losing streak on Monday, Nov 10 against the Predators.

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Islanders Defeat Rangers 5-0 At The Garden | New York Rangers