{"id":286536,"date":"2025-10-08T12:48:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T12:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/286536\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T12:48:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T12:48:12","slug":"rangers-open-season-with-a-dud-in-shutout-loss-to-penguins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/286536\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers open season with a dud in shutout loss to Penguins"},"content":{"rendered":"

New coach, same Rangers.<\/p>\n

Opening Night was a dud, far too reminiscent of last winter\u2019s dismal campaign.<\/p>\n

Mike Sullivan replaced Peter Laviolette on the bench, but it was hard to see much of a difference from last year\u2019s team that failed to reach the postseason for the first time in four years.<\/p>\n

The Rangers weren\u2019t sharp for large stretches of this 3-0 loss at a quiet Garden against the Penguins, their new coach\u2019s former team. <\/p>\n

They whiffed on two power plays, couldn\u2019t take advantage of their opportunities, and were fortunate that numerous own-zone giveaways didn\u2019t result in more goals until Pittsburgh blew it open in the final minutes with two empty-net tallies.<\/p>\n

New captain J.T. Miller looked rusty after appearing in just one preseason game due to a lower-body injury. Igor Shesterkin (27 saves) kept them in the game, but the Rangers could never get even against an aging opponent that is projected to be one of the weaker teams in the Eastern Conference this year. The shutout marked the first time the Rangers were blanked in an opener since the 2020-21 campaign, a 4-0 loss to the Islanders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know we have a good team,\u201d Artemi Panarin insisted. \u201cIt\u2019s one game. We hope it [doesn\u2019t] happen again. Try to be better next game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NewRangers left wing Will Cuylle (50) pressures Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Arturs Silovs (37) in the first period. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

Justin Brazeau\u2019s first-period goal held up for the Penguins, who added empty-netters from Brazeau and Blake Lizotte in the final 2:12 of the ugly defeat.<\/p>\n

The subpar effort led to a dreary crowd that was at its loudest when Aaron Judge\u2019s game-tying three-run homer was shown on the scoreboard. There was even a \u201cLet\u2019s go Penguins\u201d chant at one point in the second period.<\/p>\n

\"NewRangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin (31) defends in the second period against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

\u201cWell I think my first observation is we got a long way to go to become the team we want to become,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cI thought we had moments in the game where we were playing the game that we envision that we can play more consistently, but it\u2019s not nearly consistent enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first period ended in poor fashion, similar to so many periods last year. After a fairly strong start, the Rangers allowed a goal just 32 seconds before the first intermission. Vincent Trocheck lost a faceoff in his own end, and Brazeau got behind the Rangers defensemen, beating Shesterkin up top for the first goal of the year at the Garden.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The second 20 minutes were disjointed. There were poor decisions with the puck, but also a sustained strong finish that was a big part of the 13-shot period. The best chance belonged to Mika Zibanejad, on a Penguins own-zone giveaway. But he was stopped short side.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some, but I don\u2019t think enough, dangerous scoring chances. We have some first chances, we don\u2019t have a lot of second and third chances,\u201d Zibanejad said. \u201cWe have a high level in this room. We have to find a way to get an obvious score and go from there. They played hard, but we\u2019re looking at ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh nearly added to its lead late in the period, when Ville Koivunen got behind the Rangers defense, only to hit the right post. Panarin began to make his presence felt, drawing a Kris Letang tripping that gave the Rangers their second power play of the evening.<\/p>\n

The Rangers, however, couldn\u2019t do much with that man advantage, and were unable to muster much in the final period, either. They heard boos as the final seconds ticked away, an ominous start to the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, I\u2019m not going to overreact to it. It\u2019s one game,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cWe got a lot of hockey to play. So is it disappointing? Yeah, we\u2019re going to see what we can take from it. We\u2019re going to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New coach, same Rangers. Opening Night was a dud, far too reminiscent of last winter\u2019s dismal campaign. Mike…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":286537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[66396,1302,293,1334,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-286536","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-mike-sullivan-nhl","9":"tag-new-york-rangers","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115338629404971640","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}