Sweden to visit Zibanejad in June<\/a> \u2014 and so far, the dividends from that investment have been evident.<\/p>\nNew York Rangers center Mika Zibanejad (93) skates up ice in the third period against the New Jersey Devils at Madison Square Garden, Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025, in New York, NY. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
But that doesn\u2019t mean Zibanejad has been immune from the struggles. There was the moment Monday where Zibanejad just couldn\u2019t flip the puck past Gustavsson\u2019s glove. <\/p>\n
He hasn\u2019t collected a five-on-five goal this season, and despite already collecting 19 high-danger chances \u2014 which puts him on pace to shatter his 72 from an 82-game campaign last year \u2014 through the Rangers\u2019 opening stretch, Zibanejad hasn\u2019t been able to turn more of those into goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to score,\u201d Zibanejad said when asked about the danger of settling for chances instead of goals. \u201cYes, I understand that, but I\u2019m getting to the chance. I\u2019d be more worried if we didn\u2019t get any chances, if I don\u2019t get that chance, if we don\u2019t get those chances. It\u2019s frustrating for us. It\u2019s frustrating for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The chagrin wasn\u2019t limited to just Zibanejad in the aftermath of Monday\u2019s loss, either. <\/p>\n
New York Rangers center Mika Zibanejad passes the puck as Minnesota Wild defenseman Jake Middleton rushes to defend in the first period at Madison Square Garden in New York, October 20, 2025. JASON SZENES\/ NY POST<\/p>\n
Captain J.T. Miller rued two chances he missed \u2014 which he said should\u2019ve resulted in a 2-1 advantage for the Rangers and would\u2019ve allowed them to play with a lead \u2014 while defenseman Adam Fox said it\u2019s disappointing because they seemed to turn a corner Saturday with four goals, and because they still remain winless at the Garden. <\/p>\n
They\u2019ve scored 15 goals across four road games and just one during four home games. The Blueshirts lead the NHL with an expected goals for of 16.97, according to Natural Stat Trick, and have generated the second-most high-danger chances for in the league (80) behind the Penguins (83).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Sullivan, when asked about the potential disconnect, said the Blueshirts have still \u201cplayed extremely well and [are] generating a specific amount of offense\u201d with the exception of the season-opening loss to Pittsburgh, and the analytics support that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t get rewarded for it on some nights,\u201d Sullivan said, \u201cbut it wasn\u2019t a case of disconnect or not getting looks. I didn\u2019t think we got as many looks tonight, but we didn\u2019t play as well. That\u2019s different. So the narrative is very different tonight than it\u2019s been in the last couple of weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edmonton Oilers center Trent Frederic and New York Rangers center Mika Zibanejad fight for control of the puck.
Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
Still, even after Artemi Panarin scored 57 seconds into Monday\u2019s game to snap their scoreless drought at home to open the season, the concerning trend returned when the Rangers couldn\u2019t generate anything else the rest of the game. <\/p>\n
After the Rangers\u2019 third consecutive shutout at home to start the year last week, Zibanejad said he didn\u2019t know whether to laugh or cry, and six days later, his tone shifted to distraught. <\/p>\n
To frustration entering their latest chance to reverse this trajectory, with a home game against the Sharks on Thursday.<\/p>\n
To a glimpse of emotion that captured just how much this scoring rut has perhaps begun to weigh on the Rangers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The look on Mika Zibanejad\u2019s face in the moment \u2014 as he skated toward the boards after Wild…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,63669,93125,3617,575,85],"class_list":["post-231209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mika-zibanejad","tag-mike-sullivan-nhl","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}