\u201cI think the guys have done a really good job,\u201d Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said after Tuesday\u2019s practice in Tarrytown. \u201cWe are competing hard. He\u2019s not an easy guy to replace, as you know.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the guys that have stepped in have done a really good job, just as far as bringing what they bring and not trying to do too much, playing within themselves, defending hard. So we\u2019ll continue to work at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fox, the 2021 Norris Trophy winner and a 2023 finalist, had been tied for the team scoring lead with Artemi Panarin with 26 points when he was placed on long-term injured reserve last week.<\/p>\n
Fox has resumed skating, but he is expected to miss several weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe plays a lot of minutes for us, first and foremost,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cHe helps us with his transition game, his ability to move the puck, transition the puck and join the offense. He\u2019s active off the offensive blue line, helps us on the power play.<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/new-york-rangers-defenseman-braden-116869896.jpg\")
Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider chases the puck against the Colorado Avalanche. JASON SZENES FOR NY POST<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he defends hard. He\u2019s hockey strong. He\u2019s not the biggest guy in the world, but he\u2019s hockey strong. He competes hard in puck battles. He wins a lot of puck battles in our end. So he helps us in so many ways and is not an easy guy to replace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Braden Schneider has replaced Fox on the top D pairing<\/a> alongside Vladislav Gavrikov. Sullivan has been employing a five-forward first unit on the power play in Fox\u2019 absence, with winger Panarin manning the blue line<\/a>, while rookie defenseman Scott Morrow works in on the second unit.<\/p>\n \u201cYou cannot replace Foxy, he\u2019s a unique D,\u201d blueliner Matthew Robertson said. \u201cBut it\u2019s probably on all of us to step up defensively and try to create more and produce more offense for our team. So I think it\u2019s on us as a whole D corps.<\/p>\n \u201cBut defense is not just about us, it\u2019s about all five, so I think we\u2019re trying to be more together and trying to create offense from defense. We\u2019ve played against really good teams and we were right there our last two games, so I think we are moving in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, Sullivan believes despite the recent OT defeats, his team finally is establishing the identity that eluded them over the first third of the regular season.<\/p>\n \u201cI do. I think we\u2019re playing a game where I think one of the first conversations we\u2019ve had around this whole idea of what type of team we want to be \u2014 aka our identity,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to be a team that\u2019s hard to play against. And the reason for that is it\u2019s hard to win if we\u2019re not. So a big part of that is managing the puck, making teams work for their offense, not providing them easy offense opportunities. The best way to do that is to manage the puck \u2026 and being committed to defend.<\/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 \u201cI think the guys have really bought into it.\u201d<\/p>\n Sam Carrick, who fought Vegas\u2019 Keegan Kolesar in Sunday\u2019s first period, agreed that togetherness on the defensive side must extend to the team\u2019s forward corps.<\/p>\n \u201cFor sure, these low-scoring close games, I think we\u2019re building towards an identity here where we want to be a tough team that\u2019s tough to get offense against. And when we do give up some offense, we have two elite goalies that are tough to beat,\u201d Carrick said, referring to Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick. \u201cSo that\u2019s kind of our M.O. right now.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would have been nice to get those here, but there\u2019s a nice feeling around the room that we can build something special here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rangers have made a concerted commitment to tighten up their team defense in the injury absence of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[540,9,11,10,541,539,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-66507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-adam-fox","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-new-york-rangers","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66507","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=66507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/reacts-taking-hit-third-period-116406739.jpg\")
New York Rangers defenseman Adam Fox (23) reacts after taking a hit during the third period when the New York Rangers played the Tampa Bay Lightning Saturday, November 29, 2025 at Madison Square. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n