The New York Rangers play just two games this week — both at home, where they’re off to a 6-0-0 start. In fact, they play their next four games at Madison Square Garden before their first Western swing of the season. After last week’s unsuccessful two-game swing through Ontario, they’re glad to be home.
The Rangers welcome former coach Peter Laviolette on Monday, when he leads the struggling Los Angeles Kings into the Garden. After that, they get five days to rest and regroup before NHL scoring leader Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers come to town on Sunday.
The Rangers have been a Jekyll-and-Hyde team this season; dynamite at home, a dud on the road.
Rangers tools
They won their only home game last week, 5-2 against the Anaheim Ducks on Oct. 19. They played a defensively structured style and pressured the puck, making life miserable for the Ducks, as they’ve done for the five previous visitors to MSG.
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But that style was nowhere to be found in road losses to the Toronto Maple Leafs (5-4) and Ottawa Senators (7-4). Rookie goalie Dylan Garand began to show a few cracks in his game – but he got little help from his teammates. The Maple Leafs scored the winner with less than 30 seconds left in regulation after a blown defensive coverage, and the Senators took advantage of numerous defensive lapses to grab 3-0 and 4-1 leads that the offense was unable to overcome.
Garand has started seven straight games since Igor Shesterkin went down with a season-ending knee injury on Oct. 9. Coach Mike Sullivan hasn’t shown any interest in starting journeyman backup Spencer Martin, whose only action came in relief on Oct. 15, a 7-1 loss at New Jersey.
Could new signee James Reimer be headed to the Garden this week? The 38-year-old won 2-0 on Friday in his debut with AHL Hartford after signing a PTO — and has a much better career track record than Martin. It’s not impossible to think he could join the Rangers this week, especially with the long break between games.
Who’s Hot?
Adam Fox is healthy and producing the way he did when he won the Norris Trophy in 2021. Fox had seven assists in New York’s three games last week and has 16 points, all assists, in 13 games. He’s second in the NHL behind McDavid for most assists.
Who’s Not?
Eeli Tolvanen’s offense disappeared, and his ice time is shrinking as a result. He’s gone six games without a point and nine without a goal.
Rangers lookahead this week includes …
The visits by the Kings and Oilers sandwich the five-day break – a welcome respite for a team that plays 14 games in the season’s first 28 days.
Los Angeles Kings at Rangers (Oct. 26, 7 p.m.; MSG/NHL Network)
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It will be interesting to see what kind of reaction Laviolette gets from the Garden faithful. On one hand, his 2024-25 Rangers made some dubious history by going from a Presidents’ Trophy winner to a non-playoff team the next season. On the other hand, his 2023-24 team set franchise records for wins (55) and points (115), finished first in the regular season, and came within two victories of their first trip to the Stanley Cup Final since 2014.
One of the key players on that 2023-24 team was forward Artemi Panarin, who was an NHL First-Team All-Star that season after scoring 49 goals and finishing with 120 points, the second-highest single-season total in team history. The Rangers traded Panarin to Los Angeles just before the Winter Olympic break last season, and he made his return to MSG on March 16, earning an assist when the Kings skated away with a 4-1 win.
That was the Kings’ fifth straight victory against the Rangers; they’ve limited New York to seven goals in those five games.
Laviolette’s troops are off to a 2-5-2 start, although they’re 2-1-0 in their past three games despite a 3-1 loss at New Jersey on Saturday. Scoring is a big problem; the Kings have just 21 goals in their first nine games. Panarin scored six of those goals and leads the team with nine points. He also has 12 goals and 19 points in 13 career games against his old team.
Edmonton Oilers at Rangers (Nov. 1, 6 p.m.; MSG/NHL Network)
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McDavid is tearing up the League since opening night. On Thursday, he became the fourth player in NHL history to hit the 30-point mark in 10 games or fewer, joining Mario Lemieux, who did it three times with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Mike Bossy of the New York Islanders, and Wayne Gretzky of the Oilers. He’s also the fourth player in NHL history to have an assist streak of 10 games to start the season, as well as the second to have three five-point games within the first 10 games of a season; Lemieux did it twice.
He begins the week leading the NHL with 33 points (eight goals, 25 assists) in 11 games, 10 more than longtime running mate Leon Draisaitl, who’s tied for the NHL lead with 12 goals.
McDavid averages more than a point a game against all 31 rival teams. That includes the Rangers; he has nine goals and 24 points in 17 games – though the Blueshirts limited him to one assist in their two meetings last season.
The Oilers have won four in a row at the Garden, including a 2-0 victory on Oct. 14, 2025. New York won 4-3 in overtime at Edmonton 16 days later, ending a four-game overall losing streak against Edmonton. J.T. Miller, who scored the OT winner that capped the Rangers’ comeback from a 3-1 deficit, has 12 goals and 38 points in 38 career games against the Oilers.
John Kreiser covered his first Rangers game (against the California Golden Seals) in November 1975 and is still going … More about John Kreiser
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