{"id":470292,"date":"2025-12-25T07:16:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T07:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/470292\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T07:16:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T07:16:16","slug":"theres-still-rangers-hope-to-be-had-but-the-clock-is-ticking-loudly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/470292\/","title":{"rendered":"There’s still Rangers hope to be had \u2014 but the clock is ticking loudly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite the seven-goal goal Festivus<\/a> the Rangers threw in Washington on Tuesday, the holiday month was short on joy and cheer.<\/p>\n

A 4-4-2 record in their last 10 games sent the Blueshirts into a three-day holiday break without much more inspiration than the first 29 games of the regular season provided. <\/p>\n

That record is as middling as it gets, much like the Rangers 2025-26 campaign as a whole thus far.<\/p>\n

The obstacles have come in bunches and in all different forms. It\u2019s only made the lineup deficiencies that much more glaring.<\/p>\n

Then you realize the Rangers are just below the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. A mediocre Metropolitan Division has them right within striking distance of a playoff spot.<\/p>\n

Despite a record-breaking amount of shutout losses at home, owning the fifth lowest goals per game average (2.62) and a plethora of injuries, the Rangers are very much still afloat.<\/p>\n

Asked if the team is where he thought it would be at this point in the season, head coach Mike Sullivan treaded lightly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s a tough question to answer,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cI went into this experience excited about the possibility of where this team could go \u2014 and I\u2019m still excited about it. And so that hasn\u2019t changed. I think this first part of the season, we\u2019ve learned a lot about the group and we\u2019re trying to go through this journey together to try to become the best version of ourselves and that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do. But, I think, there\u2019s a lot of hockey that we played that we felt really good about our team and competed with some of the best teams in the league. And then there\u2019s been other moments where it\u2019s been a struggle.<\/p>\n

\"NewRangers left wing Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re moves the puck behind the net as Dallas Stars defenseman Esa Lindell gives chase. JASON SZENES FOR NY POST<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, from my standpoint, what we\u2019d like to see is maybe a little bit more consistency moving forward with the competitive game that I know we\u2019re capable of playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

And yet, the Rangers\u2019 14 road wins are the most in the NHL. Their five third-period comeback victories are tied for the third most and the team\u2019s 2.69 goals against per game is well within the top 10 teams (seventh).<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRead the expert take on the Blueshirts\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Rangers, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

When the holiday roster freeze ends Dec. 28 at 12:01 a.m., Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury will officially be on the clock<\/a> with just over two months until the March 6 trade deadline.<\/p>\n

The retool, which somewhat began with the waiving of Barclay Goodrow two offseasons ago, will presumably continue. <\/p>\n

It wouldn\u2019t be surprising to see Drury pull the trigger on a deal that would shake up the Rangers roster, but the problem might be the value of the assets he has to trade.<\/p>\n

No Ranger, outside of Mika Zibanejad (no-move clause until it converts to 21-team no-trade list seven days before the 2029-30 trade deadline), has had a particularly standout season.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Plus, in order to maintain the integrity of the team\u2019s compete level, NHL-ready players would have to be coming back in most deals. It\u2019s been widely reported that Brennan Othmann is available, while lineup staples like Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re and Braden Schneider have seen their names floated in the trade rumor mill.<\/p>\n

Lafreni\u00e8re, who doesn\u2019t have any trade protection this season or next, may be one of their top trade chips.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought Laf had a strong game,\u201d Sullivan said after Lafreni\u00e8re scored his eighth goal of the season Tuesday night. \u201cHe\u2019s such a talented player as we all know. It\u2019s been a struggle for him most recently to score. I thought he had a number of really good looks tonight. He was hanging onto pucks. He was also getting inside the dots and going to the net a little bit more. I think that\u2019s got to be a more consistent element of his game. I think he creates more offense if he does. He\u2019s very capable. He\u2019s strong and he\u2019s got good stick skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere needs to be another dimension to their offense and Laf\u2019s offense and that\u2019s something that we\u2019ve had a lot of discussions with Laf about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite the seven-goal goal Festivus the Rangers threw in Washington on Tuesday, the holiday month was short on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":470293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[66395,1302,293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-470292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-alexis-lafreniere","9":"tag-new-york-rangers","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115778984456404279","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470292","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=470292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}