CHICAGO \u2014 To say the Rangers played down to their opponent insinuates they were superior in the first place.<\/p>\n
Despite coming off a strong stretch against top opponents, that wasn\u2019t a sure thing against the ever-rebuilding Blackhawks on Wednesday night, when the Blueshirts couldn\u2019t execute, well, anything in a 3-0 loss that counted as their third in a row.<\/p>\n
It marked their sixth shutout loss of the season, as well as their first time getting blanked on the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s disappointing because we just go through a stretch where we play what we would deem some of the best teams in the league, and we put a game on the ice that\u2019s pretty damn competitive,\u201d a visibly dejected head coach Mike Sullivan said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to be able to do that consistently, night in and not out. And that\u2019s our challenge. We took a step back tonight. We didn\u2019t bring that game.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the Rangers offense has gone cold this season, it\u2019s become almost completely stagnant.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t just falter, it all but disappears. They struggle to connect on passes. Time in the offensive zone not only dwindles as the game goes on, but the quality plummets.<\/p>\n
Watching Chicago\u2019s first-overall pick in 2023, Connor Bedard, dazzle in a two-point performance only pours salt in an open wound.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Rangers\u2019 top pick in 2020, Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re \u2014 who was the most effective Ranger on the ice in the third period \u2014 has scored three goals (one empty-netter) in the past 14 games amongst several no-show performances.<\/p>\n
Louis Crevier scores a second-period goal on Igor Shesterkin during the Rangers\u2019 3-0 loss to the Blackhawks on Dec. 10, 2025. David Banks-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
It was a night when the Rangers\u2019 marquee skaters could not get on the scoresheet, which more often than not means the team as a whole will have a hard time doing so.<\/p>\n
If Artemi Panarin, J.T. Miller and Mika Zibanejad aren\u2019t going, the Rangers lose so much of their offensive game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s frustrating,\u201d Miller said. \u201cI need to do, for me, I guess just a better job. I think leadership, we could all step up right now in games like those and put a better game on the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n
J.T. Miller (8) hits the post with a shot as goalie Spencer Knight defends during the Rangers\u2019 road loss to the Blackhawks. David Banks-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
This appeared to be one of the better games of the season for a Blackhawks team that had lost their past two, as well as eight of their past 10.<\/p>\n
The Rangers\u2019 five-forward power-play unit, which was formed when Adam Fox went down for the foreseeable future with a shoulder injury, continued to struggle.<\/p>\n
On their first rep of the night, the group could not gain control before Louis Crevier scored short-handed for the 1-0 Chicago lead.<\/p>\n
Sullivan eventually opted to put Scott Morrow on the top of the first power play, but it did not change the result. In the past five games, the Blueshirts power play has gone 0-for-11, including their 0-for-3 showing Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
Mika Zibanejad\u2019s shot is stopped by Spencer Knight during the Rangers\u2019 road loss to the Blackhawks. David Banks-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
The Rangers were fortunate that Ryan Donato\u2019s goal was overturned after Sullivan successfully challenged for a hand pass on Colton Dach, but it did little to stifle Chicago\u2019s momentum.<\/p>\n
Bedard capped the second period scoring after one-timing a feed from Andre Burakovsky into the top corner of the net for the 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n
When Tyler Bertuzzi flipped in his 16th goal of the season less than four minutes into the third period, Vincent Trocheck smashed his stick on the ice in frustration.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just didn\u2019t earn the bounces,\u201d Trocheck said. \u201cWe had one or two or three guys every shift, not five. So we have wasted energy on the forecheck where we have one or two guys going and third and fourth aren\u2019t there. It\u2019s just inconsistent with not playing a team game for the full 60 minutes.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 To say the Rangers played down to their opponent insinuates they were superior in the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[35114,3518,20564,9,11,10,541,539,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-67576","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","9":"tag-igor-shesterkin","10":"tag-mike-sullivan-nhl","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-new-york-rangers","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67576","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=67576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}