New York Rangers Daily: one last chance in 2024 to get it right, Patrick Kane milestone point
Another day, another chance to get back on track for the New York Rangers. They close out the calendar year with a tilt Monday in Sunrise against the Florida Panthers, having lost 14 of their past 18 games.
Of course, their last visit to Sunrise doesn’t evoke happy memories. Back on June 1, the Panthers skated to a 2-1 win in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final, eliminating the Rangers from the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Many of their current issues can be traced to that series, from defensive breakdowns, to being out-worked, to their star players being outplayed.
The Rangers do enter their final game of 2024 trying to build off some positives, though. There were plenty of issues with their 6-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday, but the Rangers did hold a 67 percent expected goal share, per Natural Stat Trick, and they badly outshot and out-chanced the Lightning 5v5.
Yet they still lost, and after the Ottawa Senators’ 3-1 win against the Minnesota Wild on Sunday, the Rangers (16-18-1) are seven points out of the second wild card from the Eastern Conference.
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New York Rangers news
The Rangers play four games in four different cities — including a home game Thursday against the Boston Bruins to kick off the New Year — this week. Here’s our look at what lies ahead for the Rangers this week.
There’ll be a different look with New York’s top power-play unit Monday. Mika Zibanejad was demoted to the second unit and Alexis Lafreniere bumps up to play on PP1. We’ve got the full story on the big Rangers decision made by coach Peter Laviolette.
Looking back at the Lightning game, John Kreiser broke down the turning point, when former Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh scored a short-handed goal late in the first period.
Top Rangers prospect Gabe Perreault was held off the score sheet and the United States lost to Finland 4-3 in overtime at the World Junior Championship on Sunday. The U.S. and Canada are tied for first in Group A with seven points, each team is 2-0-1-0. Finland has five points (1-1-0-1). Perreault has four points (two goals, two assists) in three games for the United States, which plays Canada on New Year’s Eve in Ottawa.
NHL news
Former Rangers forward Patrick Kane recorded his 1,300th NHL point, when the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Washington Capitals 4-2. Kane (477 goals, 823 assists) is the second United States-born player to reach the milestone, behind Mike Modano (1,374 points).
In that same game, Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin scored his 870th career goal, leaving him 25 shy of passing Wayne Gretzky for the all-time NHL record.
Speaking of milestones, Sidney Crosby picked up his 1,034th career assist in a 3-2 win against the Islanders and passed Mario Lemieux for first all-time in Pittsburgh Penguins history in that category.
The Vancouver Canucks received some tough injury news. Star defenseman Quinn Hughes is week to week with an upper-body injury and No. 1 center Elias Pettersson remains out with an undisclosed injury, but could return sometime this week.
Tyler Bertuzzi of the Chicago Blackhawks could be facing supplemental discipline after the forward received a five-minute major for elbowing and a game misconduct in a 5-1 loss to the Dallas Stars.
The Edmonton Oilers scratched veteran forward Jeff Skinner and then blew a two-goal lead in a 5-3 loss to the Anaheim Ducks.
Watch the highlights from Ilya Samsonov’s first shutout of the season, when the Vegas Golden Knights won their sixth straight game, 3-0 against the Calgary Flames.
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