BOSTON \u2014 For the second straight year, the Rangers were shut out on opening night.<\/p>\n
Indeed, for the first time in franchise history, the Blueshirts have been blanked in back-to-back season openers after suffering a 3-0 loss at the hands of the Bruins at TD Garden on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
In the first game of a season that is supposed to be different, it was much of the same for the Rangers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a ways to go,\u201d head coach Mike Sullivan said.<\/p>\n
While it was a scoreless affair for over 56 minutes, the Bruins broke through with two quick goals \u2014 as well as one empty-netter \u2014 in the span of 1:15 to take the first of 84 games this season.<\/p>\n
It was a game that was well within reach for the Rangers, who were also shut out 3-0 by the Penguins to start last season.<\/p>\n
Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman (1) makes a save on New York Rangers center Noah Laba (42) while defenseman Mason Lohrei (6) defends. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
Once Fraser Minten scored from the high slot with 3:56 left in regulation, the Bruins broke the game open without much pushback from the Rangers.<\/p>\n
JJ Peterka then made a nasty move around Braden Schneider and buried his first goal as a Bruin less than a minute later.<\/p>\n
And just 23 seconds after that, Mark Kastelic put the puck into an empty Rangers net.<\/p>\n
Bruins\u2019 Morgan Geekie (39) lines up a shot against New York Rangers\u2019 Igor Shesterkin (31) during the first period. AP Photo\/Charles Krupa<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought our effort was good,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cI just didn\u2019t think our execution was great.\u201d<\/p>\n
The shortened preseason was apparent in the Rangers-Bruins game, as well as across some of the NHL\u2019s other four matchups. Neither Sullivan nor captain J.T. Miller considered it to be a factor \u2014 especially since all 32 clubs are dealing with it \u2014 but there were signs of rust on both sides as the two teams attempted to kick-start the season with one fewer week of preparation.<\/p>\n
Despite generating nearly the same number of shots as the Bruins, the Rangers bled odd-man rushes through the first two periods.<\/p>\n
Star goalie Igor Shesterkin had to bail out the team on numerous occasions, whether it was a 2-on-1 opportunity or an uncontested breakaway. He ultimately finished with 20 saves in the loss.<\/p>\n
JJ Peterka (10) of the Boston Bruins skates against Adam Fox (23) and Mika Zibanejad (93) of the New York Rangers at TD Garden in Boston, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Miller chalked it up to puck management and coverage issues, noting that the team\u2019s \u201ctiming was off with reloading the forwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRecognition, a little bit,\u201d Miller said of all the odd-man rushes against. \u201cWe want our D to be a part of the play a lot. I mean, that\u2019s how a lot of offense is generated in the league. Just the timing of when the forwards need to come down and replace. We\u2019ll get better at it. It\u2019s Game 1.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rangers were most proud of their third-period performance despite the trio of goals against. Not only did they tighten up their defensive positioning to avoid getting caught as much as they were earlier, but the Rangers also made a significant push offensively early on. They unloaded five consecutive shots to open the frame and had a significant edge in shots on goal for much of the period.<\/p>\n
Boston Bruins center Mark Kastelic (47) grabs a hold of New York Rangers center Matt Rempe (73) during the third period at TD Garden in Boston, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we got better as the game went on,\u201d Miller said. \u201cI thought the third was our best period. We were coming. It was a pretty hard-fought game. It\u2019s always the first game, seems to just kind of getting your legs and timing. We\u2019ll get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
That first goal, however, continues to elude the Rangers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 For the second straight year, the Rangers were shut out on opening night. Indeed, for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[95,5,2273,35,4,43],"class_list":["post-675237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-boston-bruins","tag-hockey","tag-igor-shesterkin","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117360828308318108","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}