{"id":275005,"date":"2025-11-10T08:10:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T08:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/275005\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T08:10:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T08:10:15","slug":"rangers-desperate-for-garden-win-as-predators-could-serve-as-best-chance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/275005\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers desperate for Garden win as Predators could serve as best chance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Millions dream about making it to Madison Square Garden. Countless athletes and celebrities consider it sacred ground, constantly sharing that there is no greater place to perform than the World\u2019s Most Famous Arena.<\/p>\n

But it has come to this:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether we like it or not, we have a game on Monday at home,\u201d Rangers center Mika Zibanejad said following Saturday\u2019s 5-0 loss to the Islanders.<\/p>\n

The Rangers have missed the playoffs five times since 2010. They\u2019ve finished in last place. But the Garden remained the best bet to earn two points, with the team having gone more than two decades since it last ended a season with more regulation losses than wins at home.<\/p>\n

\"MikaMika Zibanejad in action during the game against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on October 30, 2025, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Their centennial season has kicked off with the worst home start (0-6-1) in franchise history, the Rangers having become the first NHL team since 1928 to get shut out in five of their first seven home games.<\/p>\n

Entering Sunday, the Rangers were the league\u2019s lowest-scoring team (2.19 goals per game), ranking last in power-play percentage (12.2) and shooting percentage (7.6). But Monday\u2019s matchup against the Predators (5-8-4) presents their best home opportunity yet, facing a team that ranked 27th in goals against (3.47) and 25th in save percentage (.889).<\/p>\n

Nashville has lost seven of its past eight games \u2014 including four straight \u2014 and won its only road game Oct. 13.<\/p>\n

If not now, when?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gotta find a way to score,\u201d Zibanejad said. \u201cI don\u2019t care what it looks like, what happens on Monday, we just gotta get a win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI probably can do a better job of not [dwelling] on the missed chances, but I don\u2019t know, honestly. It\u2019s not two games or three games. It is frustrating not getting results at home. And then when you\u2019re feeling good, you\u2019re feeling energized \u2014 I feel great \u2014 and the puck doesn\u2019t go in, it\u2019s frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the surface, the league-best success by the Rangers on the road (7-1-1) makes their struggles at home more difficult to square, but it is that striking difference that exacerbates the issue among players who concede they are pressing, playing in front of a crowd that repeatedly has showered them with boos and grown conditioned to expect ineptitude.<\/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 Larry Brooks’ 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

\u201cWe\u2019ve won a lot of games on the road with the same game plan, with the same concept,\u201d coach Mike Sullivan said. \u201cI know when we play the game a certain way, we\u2019re competitive, and we\u2019ve beaten some really good teams. I wish I could put my finger on the struggles we\u2019ve had at home to this point, but what I do know is we\u2019ve got to work through it together, and we\u2019ll certainly do that. It starts with having an inner belief as an individual and a group. Then we\u2019ve got to go out and put a game on the ice at home like we do on the road. If we do that, we\u2019re gonna score goals, and we\u2019ll have a chance to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has been nearly seven months since the Rangers won at home. It has been more than 130 minutes of game action since they last scored.<\/p>\n

\"J.T.J.T. Miller in action during the game against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on October 30, 2025, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n

An early goal against Nashville could allow everyone in the building to exhale. But the Rangers can\u2019t allow an early deficit to kick-start another spiral.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re human. It\u2019s hard. We all care. It\u2019s not like it\u2019s an effort-based thing,\u201d captain J.T. Miller said. \u201cMost of the time, we start ready. We had a great start [against the Islanders], then got a little careless with some decisions and it cost us. Then you press because it\u2019s a lot of zeroes at home for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be mentally tough and regroup. We need to be ready to go on Monday because it\u2019s game time again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rangers recalled Gabe Perreault, their 2023 first-round pick, from Hartford. Perreault was held without a point in five games with the Rangers last season, but the offensively-gifted 20-year-old has put up five goals and five assists in nine games with the Wolf Pack this season. Jaroslav Chmelar, 22, was sent down to Hartford after appearing in his first two NHL games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Millions dream about making it to Madison Square Garden. Countless athletes and celebrities consider it sacred ground, constantly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,48153,63669,3617,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-275005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-j-t-miller","11":"tag-mika-zibanejad","12":"tag-new-york-rangers","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275005","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=275005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}