{"id":320087,"date":"2025-12-01T07:02:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T07:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/320087\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T07:02:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T07:02:13","slug":"mika-zibanejad-knows-rangers-need-swag-back-to-solve-home-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/320087\/","title":{"rendered":"Mika Zibanejad knows Rangers need ‘swag’ back to solve home woes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Where there\u2019s a will there\u2019s a way. <\/p>\n

That was basically captain J.T. Miller\u2019s assessment Saturday of the Rangers\u2019 missing ingredient as their confounding struggles at the Garden continue.<\/p>\n

Mika Zibanejad doesn\u2019t necessarily see it that way, however, saying after the Blueshirts fell to 2-8-1 on home ice with a 4-1 loss to the Lightning<\/a> that he believes effort and will are only part of the problem.<\/p>\n

They also need to rediscover their creativity and their swagger offensively.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve said it before and we\u2019ve talked about it, too, that we want to create the type of environment that\u2019s gonna be hard to come here and get the points,\u201d Zibanejad said after Saturday\u2019s loss halted the Rangers\u2019 three-game winning streak, including road wins in Carolina and Boston. \u201cBut right now it\u2019s just we\u2019re not creating that energy. I don\u2019t know if at this point it becomes about gripping the stick too hard.<\/p>\n

\"NewMika Zibanejad attempts a shot during the Rangers\u2019 Nov. 29 loss to the Lightning. Robert Sabo for the NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019re just not doing anything. It just becomes meh. You can talk about will, you can talk about how much you want it, but, like, you just have to find a way to just let loose and just go play. That\u2019s at least how I feel at times. It\u2019s just not hockey. We have to find a way to make plays and play with a little more swag, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if he believed his team\u2019s issue was more a matter of will or execution, first-year coach Mike Sullivan replied, \u201call of the above.\u201d <\/p>\n

But like Miller and others, Sullivan harped more afterward on \u201cwant\u201d and willingness to win puck battles.<\/p>\n

Still, to Zibanejad\u2019s point, there was one instance in the second period in which winger Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re was carrying the puck along the right wall through the neutral zone before dumping it into the Tampa Bay zone. <\/p>\n

The play resulted in the Lightning retrieving the puck and breaking out on an odd-man rush that led to Brandon Hagel\u2019s second goal of the game and a 2-0 Rangers hole.<\/p>\n

\"TampaThe Rangers fight for a rebound during their Nov. 29 loss to the Lightning. Robert Sabo for the NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think we had to dump it. I think we should have challenged off the rush there,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to encourage Laf to challenge people, hang onto the puck, go wide, force that guy to defend you. That\u2019s what we\u2019re talking about, right, as far as establishing the game that we\u2019re trying to play a little bit more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think we had to put that one in [deep]. We put it in, but then we don\u2019t go in with any sort of structure, and they make one play and it goes by us. I just think it boils down to execution and attention to detail. I just felt like in that particular instance, I would have liked to see Laf hold onto that puck and challenge wide. If he runs out of room, he can always lay it behind or bring people to it and then we can create some zone time. I felt like there was a fair amount of time that we gave it back to them when we didn\u2019t have to.\u201d<\/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

Saturday\u2019s loss began a stretch of 8 of 11 games to be played at MSG, continuing Tuesday night against the Stars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s gonna be nights that you don\u2019t have your best game,\u201d Sullivan added, \u201cbut you have to find ways to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Where there\u2019s a will there\u2019s a way. That was basically captain J.T. Miller\u2019s assessment Saturday of the Rangers\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,63669,93125,3617,575,85],"class_list":["post-320087","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\/320087","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=320087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}