{"id":420930,"date":"2026-01-21T14:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T14:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/420930\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T14:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T14:23:08","slug":"rangers-fall-flat-against-kings-for-10th-loss-in-last-12-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/420930\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers fall flat against Kings for 10th loss in last 12 games"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 There has been nothing opportunistic about this Rangers team since the start of the season.<\/p>\n

At times, it has been bad puck luck. A matter of effort in others. Execution hasn\u2019t been nearly as consistent as they would like, either.<\/p>\n

In a 4-3 loss to the Kings Tuesday night, however, the Blueshirts whiffed on several moments with game-changing potential to drop their 10th contest in their last 12.<\/p>\n

They trailed just 18 seconds into the game.<\/p>\n

While facing a one-goal deficit, a five-on-three power play for 1:36 was wasted.<\/p>\n

A failed clearing attempt ended up in the back of their net shortly after.<\/p>\n

And with momentum on their side early in the third period, the Rangers couldn\u2019t translate it to the scoreboard until it was too late.<\/p>\n

It resulted in the Blueshirts falling to 1-2 on the road trip so far with one more stop in San Jose to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many times have I talked to you guys about critical moments in games?\u201d head coach Mike Sullivan asked reporters rhetorically Tuesday night. \u201cThe start of periods, start of games, last minute, after a goal scored, after a fight. Those are critical moments in games where teams have an opportunity to build momentum. I do think we responded. I thought we responded after it. It\u2019s 2-2 after the first period. I felt like we did respond, but it\u2019s an instance where there\u2019s just not a lot of attention to detail there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rangers were caught flat-footed off the opening faceoff.<\/p>\n

\"LosAdrian Kempe (second from right) celebrates his goal with right wing Corey Perry as goalie Jonathan Quick and J.T. Miller look on during the first period of the Rangers\u2019 4-3 loss to the Kings on Jan. 20, 2026, in Los Angeles. AP<\/p>\n

A one-and-done dump into the offensive zone \u2014 a specialty of this Rangers team \u2014 led to an odd-man rush the other way for the Kings. <\/p>\n

Adrien Kempe buried one off a give-and-go with Brandt Clarke to open the scoring just 18 seconds into the game.<\/p>\n

Poor puck management was at the crux of the Rangers\u2019 loss in Anaheim, and it cost them again early Tuesday night.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

After Scott Morrow\u2019s shot from the top of the zone hit off Will Cuylle and in to tie it up, the Rangers gave it right back.<\/p>\n

Shortly after LA welcomed him back to Crypto.com Arena with a jumbotron tribute, Vladislav Gavrikov turned the puck over right to the stick of Kevin Fiala for the 2-1 Kings lead.<\/p>\n

Mika Zibanejad made up for it by continuing the absolute tear he\u2019s currently on.<\/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

Feeding J.T. Miller crashing the net for the two-all score, Zibanejad extended his point streak to 10 games.<\/p>\n

He has collected an eye-catching nine goals and 10 assists over that span.<\/p>\n

Darcy Kuemper exited the game at the end of the first period, after the Kings\u2019 goalie denied Jonny Brodzinski on a breakaway. <\/p>\n

\"NewWill Borgen moves the puck away from danger as Jonathan Quick defends the net during the Rangers\u2019 road loss to the Kings. Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Unable to skate it off, Kuemper headed to the locker room, and Anton Forsberg manned the net in relief for the remainder of the game.<\/p>\n

The Kings added two more in the second period, while the Rangers failed to take advantage of prime chances.<\/p>\n

Braden Schneider had a particularly rough middle frame, in which he inadvertently set up the Kings\u2019 3-2 score before taking back-to-back penalties. <\/p>\n

The puck bounced off Schneider\u2019s stick and right to Taylor Ward for the go-ahead goal at the 4:23 mark.<\/p>\n

After they failed to convert on a 5-on-3 power play, the visitors couldn\u2019t clear the puck later in the period. Andrei Kuzmenko then knocked in a rebound to give his team a two-goal lead heading into the second intermission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a big moment in the game,\u201d Miller said of the two-man advantage. \u201cThey scored right after that to go up two. The same as yesterday [against the Ducks], I don\u2019t know how I didn\u2019t score in the last five minutes of that game. It kind of felt the same today with some of the looks that [Vincent Trocheck] got. It\u2019s not going in \u2026 I think we\u2019re happy with the execution. At the end of the night, we can sleep well knowing that you\u2019re doing the right things. You have to believe that if you keep doing the right things then the puck will go in the net.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 There has been nothing opportunistic about this Rangers team since the start of the season.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[11557,393,4823,385,99],"class_list":["post-420930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-jonathan-quick","tag-los-angeles-kings","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}