{"id":317623,"date":"2025-11-30T01:37:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T01:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/317623\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T01:37:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T01:37:13","slug":"rangers-lose-to-lightning-stumble-to-2-8-1-on-home-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/317623\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers lose to Lightning, stumble to 2-8-1 on home ice"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK — The Rangers<\/a> have an NHL-best 11 road wins, yet their play at home has been a mess by comparison.<\/p>\n

Coming into Saturday’s game against the Tampa Bay<\/a> following impressive road wins over Carolina and Boston — and a three-game winning streak overall — the Rangers reverted to home form as the surging Lightning defeated New York 4-1<\/a>. The loss dropped New York’s record at Madison Square Garden to 2-8-1.<\/p>\n

The Rangers have scored just three goals total in those eight regulation defeats.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t have our best,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said after the Lightning extended their winning streak to seven. “I’m stating the obvious.”<\/p>\n

The Rangers haven’t had their best in the vast majority of their home contests. That’s a perplexing change for a team that was dominant at MSG just two seasons ago when they were 30-11-0 and finished with a league-best 114 points.<\/p>\n

New York started this season with a 3-0 home defeat to Sullivan’s former team, the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a>. Then it was shut out by Washington and Edmonton before managing a goal in a 3-1 loss to Minnesota on Oct. 20.<\/p>\n

After losing 6-5 in overtime to San Jose, the Rangers were held scoreless by Carolina and the Islanders before finally winning a home game on their eighth try, 6-3 over lowly Nashville on Nov. 10. They lost 2-1 to Detroit on Nov. 16, then edged St. Louis 3-2 on Monday.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n

2 Related<\/p>\n

Five shutout losses in their first seven home games tied a record set by the now-defunct 1928-29 Pittsburgh Pirates.<\/p>\n

New York’s offensive futility reached new levels against the Lightning as the Rangers were outshot 11-2 in the first period and 16-7 in the second.<\/p>\n

“They were more willful than we were today. They were ready to go into every battle,” Rangers captain J.T. Miller<\/a> said. “At no point in that game were we deserving of winning.”<\/p>\n

Miller rejoined the Rangers in a much-touted trade with Vancouver on Jan. 31 and was named captain before this season. Miller replaced former captain Jacob Trouba<\/a>, who was shipped to Anaheim almost a year ago during a campaign that saw the Rangers miss the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Miller scored New York’s lone goal Saturday, but his frustration after home defeats has been palpable.<\/p>\n

“We did it to ourselves,” he said. “There was no urgency today. It’s unacceptable.”<\/p>\n

Assistant captain Vincent Trocheck<\/a> said positive focus is the only approach to take as the season progresses.<\/p>\n

“This game is majority mental. It’s up to you to fight off the negativity,” he said. “It’s just a matter of us playing the right way.”<\/p>\n

The Rangers are off Sunday before practicing Monday and then facing the potent Dallas Stars<\/a> at home Tuesday. Next weekend won’t get easier with the league-leading Colorado Avalanche<\/a> visiting Saturday, followed by Vegas on Sunday.<\/p>\n

New York plays seven of its next 10 games at home as it seeks to match its road prowess on home ice.<\/p>\n

“It’s just about focusing on one game at a time,” Trocheck said.<\/p>\n

The Rangers heard boos late in Saturday’s loss and that was not lost on Mika Zibanejad<\/a>, the team’s most tenured player.<\/p>\n

“I understand the reaction from our fans,” he said. “We’re more frustrated than they are.”<\/p>\n

Sullivan added that top defenseman Adam Fox<\/a> will be evaluated after absorbing a hard hit during Saturday’s loss. Fox assisted on Miller’s goal and is tied for the team lead in points with 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK — The Rangers have an NHL-best 11 road wins, yet their play at home has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-317623","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-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317623","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=317623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}