The Rangers will enter Thursday as one of only two Eastern Conference teams without a home win \u2014 along with last-place Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n
They have just one goal in their four home games and have lost three of their last four overall.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hardly the start to the season anyone expected under new head coach Mike Sullivan.<\/p>\n
And with a winless San Jose coming to Madison Square Garden on Thursday followed by a trip out west, things could get ugly in a hurry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look at them as, \u2018They\u2019re gonna be desperate as hell,\u2019 \u2019\u2019 J.T. Miller said of the floundering Sharks. \u201cIt\u2019s not an easy game. If you start thinking like that, the night\u2019s over. We should be as desperate as anybody right now. I\u2019m confident we\u2019ll bring that [Thursday].\u201d<\/p>\n
Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin reacts in front of the net after allowing the Minnesota Wild to score. JASON SZENES\/ NY POST<\/p>\n
That came after a lengthy practice in Tarrytown on Wednesday following another home loss to Minnesota. <\/p>\n
And unlike some of their other Garden defeats, the team did not take solace from playing well in a loss, acknowledging they played poorly throughout.<\/p>\n
Sullivan talked with the team for several minutes at center ice when Wednesday\u2019s session was over, but declined to divulge his message to the players.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no secret, though, that the Rangers have to start finding better results<\/a> \u2014 not to mention goals and wins \u2014 and soon.<\/p>\n Asked if he felt the team has the urgency he believes it needs to thwart the slow start to the season, the captain said, \u201cThat\u2019s the level we need to bring. We need to have that. We can\u2019t just hope things work out. When we play an urgent game, we get results. We haven\u2019t been scoring, but we get results. We need to bear down.\u201d<\/p>\n Brock Faber defends against Artemi Panarin during the Rangers\u2019 loss to the Wild on Oct. 20, 2025. AP<\/p>\n That includes on the power play, where the Rangers have struggled for much of the first eight games<\/a>, scoring on just 15 percent of their power plays (26th in the league).<\/p>\n \u201cWe get a few chances every game that we could or should score on and we don\u2019t,\u2019\u2019 Miller said. \u201cI\u2019m obviously a big part of that. I need to bear down on the net a little bit harder. We\u2019re getting there.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, none of it has added up to a victory on Broadway for a team that typically has a strong home-ice advantage.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n