The New York Rangers were awarded an extra shot on goal on Tuesday as part of their 2-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators Monday night, bringing their total for the game up to 10.
The additional shot helped the Rangers avoid the dubious record of being the first team in the salary-cap era to be held to under 10 shots on net in a game. The mark would have also been the fewest shots on goal allowed by the Senators in franchise history.
Despite the stat bonus, the Rangers’ 10 shots matched a franchise low since the league officially started tracking the stat in 1959-60. They previously recorded only 10 shots on net in a 1-0 win over the St. Louis Blues in January of 1999.
“I don’t know what to say,” Rangers captain J.T. Miller said after the game. “We got completely outplayed; we got outcompeted. Things that we’re just not okay with as a group and it’s a shame on a night like tonight.”
Monday’s matchup was also Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad’s 1,000th game, which happened to be against the team that drafted him sixth overall in 2011. Miller, who is in his first season as captain of the Rangers, questioned his team’s ability to rally around their teammate.
“Sometimes we talk about how you lose the game and you can sleep at night. You feel good on the drive home. Tonight, it shouldn’t feel good,” said Miller. “I don’t think we had 10 shots in Mika’s 1,000th game. We have every reason to want to play better at home this year for how much we’ve struggled.
“I’m not doing enough to help my team right now as a leader. You just look inward. What can I do? It’s not enough. For us not to win puck battles and not skate, those things are inexcusable.”
Miller credits the Senators for their play as Ottawa continues to chase one of the final playoff spots in the Eastern Conference. However, he lamented his team’s inability to rise to the occasion against a prospective playoff squad.
“We know exactly what the game was going to be. That’s a playoff-ready team,” said Miller. “They have some unbelievable players, and some guys play a heavy game. It was either [we’re] going to match it, or we’re not. And we didn’t. These ones don’t sit well.”
“I’ll acknowledge that our circumstance is difficult, but I don’t think there’s any room for rationalizing,” Rangers head coach Mike Sullivan added after the game. ” I think we’ve got to play a game with more commitment.”
The Rangers sit last in the Eastern Conference with a 28-34-9 record and are on the verge of missing the playoffs for the second consecutive season after winning the Presidents’ Trophy in 2023-24.
Miller is in the midst of his first full season of his second stint with the club after he was acquired in a multi-player deal with the Vancouver Canucks in January of 2025.
The 6-foot winger has 14 goals and 41 points in 57 games this season as he dealt with multiple injuries.
Sullivan is in his first season with the Rangers after spending 10 years with the Pittsburgh Penguins where he won two Stanley Cups.
The 58-year-old coach was also the head coach of the United States men’s Olympic team, who won the country’s first gold medal since 1980 earlier this season.