NEW YORK \u2014 Madison Square Garden went dark Wednesday night, with no hockey scheduled to be played here for the hometown New York Rangers until September.<\/p>\n
It will go down as one of the most disappointing \u2014 and peculiar \u2014 seasons in the long history of the storied venue<\/a>, beginning with the worst start the NHL has ever seen on home ice. That\u2019s not hyperbole: It\u2019s statistical reality.<\/p>\n The Rangers became the first team in league history to open a season being shut out in their first three home games<\/a>. The drought spanned a total of 180:57, surpassing the 2001-02 Florida Panthers (155:17) for the longest season-opening scoreless streak at home among existing NHL franchises. New York came within 6:22<\/a> of tying the 1928-29 Pittsburgh Pirates for the record.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to climb out of that,\u201d captain J.T. Miller said after Wednesday\u2019s home finale, a 5-3 loss to the playoff-bound Buffalo Sabres.<\/p>\n At first, the Rangers were defiant. They lost their first seven games at MSG, yet maintained they were playing better than the results indicated.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were creating offense; we just weren\u2019t scoring,\u201d coach Mike Sullivan said again Wednesday, repeating a sentiment he and several players uttered countless times this season.<\/p>\n The analytics backed that up for about a month, but as the losses piled up, the numbers slipped, and those words rang hollow.<\/p>\n Players grew increasingly frustrated \u2014 as did the Garden faithful, which made its displeasure known with frequent boos and \u201cFire Drury\u201d chants directed at team president and general manager Chris Drury.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a passionate fan base, right? And I want nothing more than that,\u201d Miller said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard when things aren\u2019t going well, and then you squeeze a little tighter to get out of it. Maybe you play a little differently than you would when you were a little more loose. It\u2019s hard mentally.\u201d<\/p>\n New York didn\u2019t capture its first victory at MSG until Nov. 10, 6-3 over the Nashville Predators. But the home-ice woes weren\u2019t over.<\/p>\n From Nov. 24 until March 5, the Rangers failed to register a regulation win at the Garden \u2014 a span of 18 games. They lost key players Adam Fox and Igor Shesterkin to injury during that time, traded away leading scorer Artemi Panarin<\/a> and issued a letter to fans announcing \u201cretool\u201d plans<\/a>, essentially waving the white flag on the season.<\/p>\n They were on pace to challenge the 2003-04 Rangers\u2019 franchise low of 13 home-ice wins in a season of 80 games or more, but a late surge would spare them the indignity.<\/p>\n New York entered its final seven-game homestand with a 9-18-7 record at MSG, then rallied to win five of those contests<\/a> and finish 14-20-7.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can look at it like we\u2019re not playing for anything, but I think that we\u2019ve done a good job of flipping that and being like, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re playing for something. We\u2019re playing for the Rangers in Madison Square Garden. We\u2019re going to show up,\u2019\u201d Miller said. \u201cI think the results lately have shown that.\u201d<\/p>\n Credit the Rangers for not folding, but it amounts to a minor consolation in an overwhelmingly disappointing season \u2014 especially for the fans who showed up time after time to endure it.<\/p>\n Adam Fox, Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re stay hot<\/p>\n New York couldn\u2019t quite match the firepower of a Sabres team that\u2019s been one of the league\u2019s best stories, with Buffalo scoring three unanswered goals in the third period to pull into first place in a three-way race with the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning for the Atlantic Division.<\/p>\n The Rangers managed only one shot on goal in the final 20 minutes, but they admirably went toe-to-toe through the first two periods to build a 3-2 lead spurred by Fox and Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re, who have come on strong down the stretch.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought we were the better team most of the night,\u201d Sullivan said.<\/p>\n Lafreni\u00e8re scored twice, including the tying goal on a partial breakaway 2:57 into the second period. That upped his season totals to 24 goals and 55 points, 2 points away from tying a career high with three road games still to play.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re really encouraged,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cWe really think Laf\u2019s game, probably since the Olympic break, has really evolved. He has a much more mature game in the sense that I think he\u2019s playing more straight ahead. I think he\u2019s managing the puck better. He\u2019s hanging on to pucks. He\u2019s challenging defensemen, both off the rush, but also down low, underneath the hash marks. He\u2019s been a handful.\u201d<\/p>\n Fox netted a go-ahead goal at the 14:44 mark of the second period after assisting on Lafreni\u00e8re\u2019s first tally. That pushed the 28-year-old\u2019s point streak to eight games, during which he\u2019s poured in 15 points (four goals and 11 assists).<\/p>\n It took Fox a while to regain his form after multiple injuries that cost him 27 total games, but he\u2019s reminding everyone just how valuable he is when healthy.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been feeling good,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you miss a stretch of time, it can take a little bit, but I think over the last month or so, I feel really good about my game. I\u2019m creating chances. The power play has been generating chances and finishing them, so I think that\u2019s obviously a big help.\u201d<\/p>\n Kevin Maxwell rejoins Rangers\u2019 front office<\/p>\n The Rangers are making changes to their pro scouting department, starting with the hiring of Kevin Maxwell as director of player personnel and pro scouting, according to a league source.<\/p>\n The 66-year-old rejoins the organization after four seasons with the St. Louis Blues, where he served as general manager of the AHL\u2019s Springfield Thunderbirds. Before that, Maxwell spent 14 seasons with the Rangers (2008-22), including the final 11 in the same director of pro scouting role he\u2019s returning to fill.<\/p>\n It was a largely successful period for New York, which made the playoffs eight times, reached the Eastern Conference finals four times and appeared in the 2014 Stanley Cup Final during Maxwell\u2019s previous tenure. But he was also around for some crucial missteps at the end of that run, including the 2021 offseason that saw Pavel Buchnevich traded to St. Louis for a meager return and the calamitous signing of defenseman Patrik Nemeth.<\/p>\n He\u2019ll share director of player personnel responsibilities with John Lilley, who has held that position, as well as director of amateur scouting, since 2021. The plan is for Maxwell to oversee the pro side and Lilley to lead the draft and amateur side.<\/p>\n The Rangers will also be transitioning Garth Joy, who previously worked as associate director of player personnel and director of pro scouting, into an area scout role, according to a league source.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear whether a new associate director will be named or whether any further changes are coming under Maxwell, but it does appear Drury has identified pro scouting as a point of emphasis while Lilley and the amateur scouting department seemingly remain intact.<\/p>\n Lilley was hired shortly after the 2021 NHL Draft, which was Drury\u2019s first at the helm and featured a notable first-round miss, Brennan Othmann. New York hasn\u2019t picked higher than 23rd in any year since \u2014 largely the result of winning seasons and trades that wiped away their draft capital \u2014 but snagged top prospect Gabe Perreault<\/a> in that slot in 2023 and uncovered a handful of useful players in later rounds. Adam S\u00fdkora (2022 second round, No. 63), Noah Laba (2022 fourth round, No. 111) and Drew Fortescue (2023 third round, No. 90) have arrived as rookies this season<\/a>, and Victor Mancini (2022 fifth round, No. 159) was part of last year\u2019s trade that brought Miller over from the Vancouver Canucks. Nathan Aspinall (2024 fifth round, No. 159) just finished second in the OHL with 94 points in 65 games and is set to turn pro next season.<\/p>\n That likely explains why Lilley remains in the organization\u2019s good graces, despite back-to-back years of the Rangers missing the playoffs. This summer will mark his most pivotal draft yet, with two first-round picks, including one that\u2019s expected to land in the top 10, and 11 selections in total.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Madison Square Garden went dark Wednesday night, with no hockey scheduled to be played here…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,541,56],"class_list":{"0":"post-191920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-city-news","12":"tag-new-york-rangers","13":"tag-ny"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}