TAMPA BAY — File this in the easier-said-than-done category, but the New York Rangers may be on the verge of a breakthrough.

For the first month of the 2025-26 season, they made impressive gains toward becoming the hounding defensive team that new coach Mike Sullivan envisions. The problem was they weren’t scoring enough, particularly at home, but that script has flipped in their last two games — a pair of wins in which the Rangers racked up 13 total goals.

It may have cost them the airtight structure they established in previous weeks, but Sullivan firmly believes there’s a world in which they can achieve both explosive offense and quality defense.

“That’s the game that we have to strive to put on the ice every night,” Sullivan said following Friday’s practice at TGH Iceplex. “I don’t think that it’s one at the expense of the other. In other words, it’s not a binary proposition.”

At the heart of the matter are the decisions the Rangers make with the puck. It’s not like their defensive-zone coverage has crumbled, with Sullivan’s switch from man-to-man to zone proving to be a wise choice. There has been a notable increase in turnovers, however. The Rangers have been charged with 15 or more giveaways in each of their last three games after eclipsing that number only three times in their first 15 contests.

“It’s a huge part of it,” Sullivan said. “One of the easiest ways to be easy to play against, or allow a team easy offense, is to mismanage the puck. If you’re careless with the puck and you don’t take care of the puck in the wrong areas of the rink — in particular, around the blue lines — then you are essentially feeding a team’s transition game, and your team is never in a posture to be able to defend effectively.”

It’s a constant give-and-take.

When the Rangers are too risk-averse, it diminishes their ability to produce skill plays, particularly off the rush. Sullivan has repeatedly stated they don’t just want to be a dump-and-chase team, but he’s also warned about being too reckless and leaving themselves vulnerable to counterattacks.

It’s a problem that’s plagued New York for years and has been harped on by multiple coaches, but what we saw early on may have been an overcorrection.

“If you’ve got confidence in yourself to make the plays, you’ve got to try to make the plays,” forward Will Cuylle said. “You can’t just chip everything in. At the same time, you’ve also got to know who you’re out there against, especially if you’re going against the top line. You can’t be turning stuff over at their blue line, especially teams that are good in transition. So I think it’s game awareness and just knowing if you have those kind of plays in your bag.”

Finding the right balance could catapult New York in the Eastern Conference, which is looking wide open. The top team (New Jersey Devils) and the 15th-place team (Washington Capitals) were only separated by eight points entering play Friday, with the Rangers smack dab in the middle. They’re one of nine teams in the East that have collected between 20 and 25 points, a sign of the parity that’s taken hold.

The two-time defending champion Florida Panthers have taken a step back without their captain, Aleksander Barkov, and star winger Matthew Tkachuk, with the former out for the season due to a torn right ACL and MCL. No one has emerged to fill the void as a front-runner.

The Rangers sat right behind the Panthers at No. 14 in The Athletic’s latest power rankings, which were aptly titled “Chaos in the middle.” While that’s about where many expected them to be at the start of the season, including yours truly, it’s starting to feel like they have an opportunity to exceed expectations.

It’ll come down to whether Sullivan is right about being able to keep the offense humming without sacrificing on the other end.

“We have to score goals to win consistently,” he said. “But we’re not going to score our way to success.”

At the forefront of the Rangers’ recent scoring outburst has been the high-flying trio of Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafrenière. (Joe Hrycych / Getty Images)

The high-event line

At the forefront of the Rangers’ scoring outburst has been the trio of Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafrenière. Since Trocheck returned from an upper-body injury two games ago, they’ve generated seven of the team’s 10 even-strength goals.

The rate at which they’re scoring is lapping the competition around the league. They’re averaging 11.93 goals per 60 minutes, according to MoneyPuck, which is tops among NHL lines that have logged at least 40 minutes together. The next closest is Toronto’s Matias Maccelli, John Tavares and William Nylander at a distant 7.2 GF/60.

That pace will be virtually impossible to maintain, but don’t forget that this was the NHL’s highest-scoring line in 2023-24. There’s a track record here.

There’s a downside, as well. The Panarin-Trocheck-Lafrenière line is surrendering 4.47 goals against per 60, which ranks worst on the team. They’re pushing for quick-strike chances, which, at times, can leave them susceptible to odd-man rushes coming the other way. Still, it seems like a worthwhile tradeoff given New York’s previous scoring woes, with Sullivan granting them the freedom to take risks.

“There’s inherent risk in playmaking,” Sullivan said. “We are going to give our best players the latitude to act on their instincts. I look at it as my job to identify when the risk becomes too great.” 

Chris Kreider light

Another reason for the offensive uptick is a power play that’s picked things up following a woeful start. The Rangers opened the season by converting four of their first 36 opportunities, but they’ve now scored three times in the last four games.

It’s no coincidence that those goals have come with new PP1 net-front guy Cuylle, who’s responsible for two of the tallies. He’s New York’s best candidate to fill the void left by Chris Kreider, who excelled in that role for years and is having similar success with the Anaheim Ducks.

“He’s definitely someone that I watched for my first two years,” Cuylle said. “I learned a lot.”

Sullivan began the season by trying more accomplished point-producers, most notably Lafrenière and captain J.T. Miller. Neither can match Cuylle’s size and strength, however, nor do they have his experience in that spot.

As the 6-foot-3, 212-pound forward pointed out Friday, he occupied the net front on the power play during both his OHL days with the Windsor Spitfires and his AHL time with the Hartford Wolf Pack. It requires a specific skill set that he’s been groomed for, so when Cuylle’s number was called last week, he felt ready.

“At the end of the day, it’s just getting reps and repetition,” Cuylle said. “You maybe only get one or two shots a game to tip, so it’s making sure you’re ready to get them and put them in a good spot.”

What’s the Rangers’ biggest need?

We’re still nearly four months away from the March 6 trade deadline, so I’ll hold off on fueling the rumor mill with specific targets for a bit longer. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t beginning to think about positions the Rangers may look to address, though.

I won’t quibble with anyone who argues they should be seeking a top-six winger with finishing ability, but now that top prospect Gabe Perreault has arrived, I’m reserving judgment until we see a large enough sample size.

Conversely, the need for a puck-moving defenseman who can have a positive offensive impact has emerged as a priority. Adam Fox is off to a strong start with 15 points, but there really isn’t anyone else who grades out as above average in the skill department. New York’s next-highest scoring defenseman is Vladislav Gavrikov, with six points, who wasn’t signed to a seven-year, $49 million contract last summer for his puck prowess.

Sullivan has tried to squeeze more out of Braden Schneider, but the 24-year-old hasn’t taken off as the quarterback of the second power-play unit and continues to show limited offensive upside outside of jumping up in the occasional rush. Will Borgen, who missed Friday’s practice with an upper-body injury, is playing very well defensively, but no one is mistaking him for Brian Leetch. Meanwhile, Carson Soucy and Urho Vaakanainen have been adventurous with the puck. Each has produced its share of oh-no turnovers, and while prospect Scott Morrow is noted for his playmaking, the early whispers I’m hearing from Hartford haven’t been overly positive.

It’s not all about putting up points, but acquiring a defenseman who can improve breakouts, connect on passes in transition and shoot the puck well enough to reach the opposing net would be at the top of my wish list.

A tribute to Larry Brooks

One of the last times I saw Larry Brooks was, of course, at the Rangers’ practice rink.

It was a quiet day toward the end of training camp with a lighter reporter presence, which typically lent itself to ice-side conversations. We chatted about the team’s pending roster decisions — we’d usually find topics to debate, which was always a treat, but we agreed this day — before shifting to non-hockey subjects. At one point, the changes in the MSG broadcast booth came up, which prompted me to ask the Hockey Hall of Famer a fairly pointed question: Had he considered when he’d like to retire?

“What else would I do?” Brooks shot back, grinning.

The inference was obvious to anyone who knew the legendary New York Post columnist: He loved everything about this job and wanted to keep doing it for as long as he could.

Brooks died of cancer on Thursday at age 75. Even in the brief period between his taking leave in early October and his death, he repeated that plan multiple times via text.

His fighting spirit came as no surprise. In the six-plus years I knew him, I never saw Brooks back down to anything. Underneath that tough exterior, though, I came to find a big heart. It took a little while to break down the barriers, but over time, he opened up to our relatively small but tight-knit group of beat reporters. We had a lot of laughs and good times, especially while navigating the seemingly endless travel schedule during the Rangers’ runs to the Eastern Conference finals in 2022 and 2024. Whenever something bigger than hockey came up in any of our lives, Brooks was always there with a kind message and words of encouragement.

Through those experiences, several lessons were imparted. Brooks’ dogged pursuit of compelling stories and commitment to advocating for unfiltered access were evident from the start, but I also grew to appreciate his sense of accountability. I’ll never forget the first time a player confronted me about something I wrote, which Brooks assured was an inevitability that happened countless times in his career. Just keep working hard and showing up every day, he said, and be willing to let them say their piece. They’ll respect it, even if they don’t always agree.

Brooks certainly didn’t shy away from disagreement. He put his opinions out there on a near-daily basis with piercing candor and a unique, authoritative voice. Often, his columns drove the narrative surrounding the team, or even the NHL. He knew how to cut to the core of an issue or strike a nerve. The rest of us were left in his wake.

It’s what made him a pillar of the New York sports scene for decades and why his death resonates with so many. When you read someone for that long, as so many Rangers and hockey fans did with Brooks, they become part of your life.

It’s a legacy most sportswriters can strive for but never quite match. And it’s why he’s one of the best to ever do it.