Natural Stat Trick<\/a>.<\/p>\nSheary, who had inked a one-year contract with New York a day before the season began after joining Rangers training camp on a Professional Tryout, was still searching for his first goal with the Blueshirts. In 26 games entering Saturday, he\u2019d managed six assists.<\/p>\n
****\n<\/p>\n
A week ago, Sheary was a healthy scratch and only drew back into the lineup after Adam Edstr\u00f6m was sidelined with a lower body injury. Throughout the Rangers\u2019 first 29 games, Sheary had bounced around head coach Mike Sullivan\u2019s lineup, and spent time in the bottom six.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Sheary skated alongside J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck on New York\u2019s top line. Sullivan said after the overtime loss that Sheary\u2019s game can help Miller and Trocheck. Sheary\u2019s strong forechecking ability, he explained, is one of his best attributes.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got a great stick,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cHe\u2019s quick. He knocks a lot of pucks down. He creates a lot of opportunity, turnovers, stalled pucks, things of that nature. He thinks it pretty good, and sees it pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n
The line combination is also partly by design, Sullivan said, to see what the Rangers could get out of their top six. Will Cuylle shuffled down to the third line and played alongside Noah Laba. Against the Ottawa Senators on Thursday, Jonny Brodzinski skated with Miller and Trocheck. Sullivan felt that the changes have benefited all four lines.<\/p>\n
****\n<\/p>\n
Sheary and Sullivan didn\u2019t enter 2025-26 as strangers. Undrafted, Sheary signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins\u2019 AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton Penguins. In the fall of 2015, Sheary was humming along with 36 points in 30 games, with Sullivan behind the bench. Within three days that December, Sullivan was promoted to Pittsburgh\u2019s bench boss and Sheary was called up.<\/p>\n
That spring, the two would win their first of two back-to-back Stanley Cups, with Sheary spending a good portion of the second half of the season playing with Sidney Crosby on the Penguins\u2019 top line. He scored the overtime winner in Game 2 of the 2016 Stanley Cup Final over the San Jose Sharks.<\/p>\n
But Sheary\u2019s career took a downturn in Tampa Bay, where he signed as a free agent in 2023 after stops in Buffalo, a brief return to Pittsburgh and later Washington. In his second season with the Lightning, his role diminished and was sent to the AHL \u2014 he played just five games in the NHL last season and did not record a point. Over the summer, he and the Lightning mutually agreed to terminate his contract.<\/p>\n
Entering Saturday, Sheary hadn\u2019t scored a goal in the NHL since April 11, 2024, when he tied Tampa Bay\u2019s game against Ottawa at one with a backhand shot \u2014 his team, similarly, lost 3-2 after regulation and picked up a point.<\/p>\n
Despite the scoring drought, he\u2019s remained effective. When Sheary is on the ice at five-on-five this season, New York has had just over 51% of the shot attempts, according to Natural Stat Trick \u2014 this metric ranks seventh among Rangers skaters. The Rangers also control nearly 54% of the expected goal share at five-on-five with Sheary on the ice \u2014 fifth among Rangers skaters.<\/p>\n
\u201cConor\u2019s done a lot of really good things for us this year,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cThe only thing that\u2019s been missing is just the finish.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
****\n<\/p>\n
When Sheary received Trocheck\u2019s pass on the right wing, Colorado forward Martin Ne\u010das was the lone man back. Colorado defenseman Devon Toews had pinched into the corner for the puck battle. Cale Makar remained at the offensive blue line to defend against Trocheck.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was kind of late in the shift,\u201d Sheary explained. \u201cI thought I could take advantage of maybe him being tired and catch him by surprise.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Sheary cut to the middle. Ne\u010das was caught and turned to chase him. Makar followed from behind. Sheary had what he later described as a \u201cmini breakaway.\u201d Just below the faceoff dot, and with Colorado goalie Mackenzie Blackwood moving to his right, he shot glove side and beat Blackwood.<\/p>\n
He pumped his fist. He raised his arms. His teammates surrounded him as the Garden came to life.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was waiting a long time for it,\u201d Sheary said. \u201cSo it felt nice to go in.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Sullivan added that he hoped Sheary\u2019s goal would give him a boost of confidence moving forward. The Rangers\u2019 81 goals this season rank 24th in the league. Any extra offense would help.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has shown the ability to score in this league in a number of different places,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cSo if he can chip in a little bit with a goal here and there for us, it certainly helps us with all the other things that he brings to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more on Conor Sheary and the Rangers, visit AMNY.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dec 6, 2025; New York, New York, USA; New York Rangers left wing Conor Sheary (43) celebrates after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[33405,9,11,10,539,27940,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-63486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-conor-sheary","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-rangers","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63486","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=63486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Conor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2025-12-06T210929Z_1727995732_MT1USATODAY27756677_RTRMADP_3_NHL-COLORADO-AVALANCHE-AT-NEW-YORK-RANGE.jpeg\" "\\"Rangers\u2019")
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