a flat 3-0 home loss to the Penguins.<\/a><\/p>\nReturning leading scorer Artemi Panarin also was sidelined for much of camp \u2014 and did not appear in any of the team\u2019s preseason games \u2014 before returning to the lineup without much impact against Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to take it day by day. Obviously, J.T. missed a fair amount of training camp, as did Bread,\u201d Sullivan said after practice in Tarrytown ahead of Thursday\u2019s game in Buffalo. \u201cThose two guys are jumping on a moving train, and when you miss that much time, it\u2019s not easy to jump back into an NHL game at NHL pace.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven from a conditioning standpoint, I think those guys will get better with every game they play. I think they\u2019ll get better with timing and reads and all of those things. So we\u2019ll take each day as it comes, and we\u2019ll try to manage it accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rangers center J.T. Miller (8) falls over Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Arturs Silovs (37) as a shot comes in in the third period at Madison Square Garden, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
The duo generally play on different lines among the top six forwards, Panarin on the left side with regular linemates Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re, with Miller centering a unit between Mika Zibanejad and Will Cuylle.<\/p>\n
Panarin managed two shots on goal with a minus-3 rating, and Miller registered none with a minus-2.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoing everything I can to get the game legs ready,\u201d the 32-year-old Miller said after practice. \u201cObviously last week, [not] doing a whole lot, so it\u2019s hard to jump in.<\/p>\n
Rangers left wing Artemi Panarin (10) skates with the puck in the first period against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Madison Square Garden, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, in New York, NY. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
\u201cBut unfortunately it\u2019s one of those things that I just [have] to do as much as I can to get my body ready sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sullivan wasn\u2019t pleased with the team\u2019s overall performance in his Blueshirts debut \u2014 a poor showing against the franchise with which he won two Stanley Cup titles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think [watching the film] provides more affirmation that what we saw from the bench was actually the case,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cWe certainly weren\u2019t at our best. I think we\u2019re capable of much better.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving said that, it\u2019s one game, we\u2019ve got to try to learn from it and move by it and get ready for the next one [Thursday against the Sabres.\u201d<\/p>\n
Igor Shesterkin only allowed one goal on 28 shots, coming with 32 seconds remaining in the first period. The Penguins later potted two empty-net goals in the final 2:12.<\/p>\n
Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin (31) blocks a shot in the second period against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Madison Square Garden, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, in New York, NY. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s a lot to take from a learning opportunity, that\u2019s for sure, starting in the defensive zone,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cI thought we vacated our net front a fair amount. We allowed them to get inside us a little too often. And we gave up some high-quality looks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought Shesty made a couple of big saves to keep it at one goal. For me, I think that\u2019s the biggest area where I think we\u2019ve got to do a better job, just playing within our structure. And then we\u2019ve got an opportunity to kill plays by physically getting into people and getting the puck stopped. We\u2019ve got to try to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Top defenseman Adam Fox believes the team lacked \u201cconnectivity\u201d as a five-man unit, but that should improve as the Rangers gain more familiarity with Sullivan\u2019s system as opposed to the one employed by his predecessor, Peter Laviolette.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s guys trying to think a little too much [about] where to be,\u201d Fox said. \u201cWe\u2019re coming from a little different scheme in terms of coverage. I think sometimes that could get guys a little confused and get a little disconnected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was our first time with the whole group in a game; [we] didn\u2019t get too many reps with everyone [during the preseason]. \u2026 The more you do it, the more confident you feel, the less thinking. Once you\u2019re hesitating a little and give guys a little time and space, that\u2019s when you get running around.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"J.T. Miller described his legs as \u201cheavy\u201d in the season opener Tuesday night after the new Rangers captain…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":288136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[28589,80411,66396,1302,293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-288135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-artemi-panarin","9":"tag-j-t-miller","10":"tag-mike-sullivan-nhl","11":"tag-new-york-rangers","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115341935549995406","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288135","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=288135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}