New York Rangers are damaging their playoff hopes by frittering away points
The New York Rangers have perked up their play since the start of 2025, going 4-1-2 in the new year, including 3-0-2 in their past five games, after finishing 2024 on a 4-15-0 slide. That’s helped them hang around in the Eastern Conference Turtle Derby for the two wild card spots, where Wednesday began with eight teams are separated by six points.
But the Rangers would be a lot closer if they could manage to do a better job closing out games and winning games they’re supposed to.
Their 3-2 overtime loss to the Colorado Avalanche in Denver on Tuesday was less than two minutes away from being a 2-1 victory that would have been their third in a row – all against top-level teams. Instead, they allowed Artturi Lehkonen to tie the game with 1:13 remaining in regulation, failed to convert a 4-on-3 power play in overtime and saw Avs defenseman Devon Toews score the game-winner with 37 seconds remaining in OT.
To say coach Peter Laviolette was frustrated would be putting it mildly.
“They competed and did everything we wanted to do for 58 minutes,” he said. “It’s really difficult walking away and not getting that extra point. Tie it up, and even in overtime [we had] looks and chances to win the game. We didn’t get it done.
“So that’s the frustrating part about it — to play so well for the 58 (minutes) and then not to capitalize. Guys played hard the entire night. It was a hard-fought game for us and didn’t get the results that we wanted.”
As much as there was to like about the Rangers’ effort — including two goals by fourth-liners, a 3-for-3 effort penalty-killing effort and shorthanded goal by Sam Carrick, and defenseman Ryan Lindgren’s five blocked shots — the end result was that the Rangers fell another point behind the Boston Bruins and Columbus Blue Jackets, the holders of the two wild cards.
The Bruins defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-2 in Boston, and the Blue Jackets made it 4-for-4 in shootouts by defeating the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 in Columbus for their fifth straight win. Unlike the Rangers, the Jackets came back and tied the game when defenseman Zach Werenski scored with 4:37 remaining, allowing them to turn a regulation loss into two points.
“Good until the end,” Rangers defenseman Adam Fox said. “Gotta get a win.”
The story was similar a week earlier, when the Rangers blew an early three-goal lead, then couldn’t hang on to a 4-3 advantage in the final three minutes of regulation. The Dallas Stars tied the game on a goal by Thomas Harley with 2:39 left in the third period, then got a power-play goal by Jamie Benn 2:17 into overtime for a 5-4 win – and another point the Rangers didn’t get.
In fact, the Rangers lead the East’s wild card hopefuls with 19 regulation wins. They’ve gone past regulation just four times – and lost three of those games, all in overtime. They have lost twice this season (both at home) when leading by multiple goals but have not rallied from more than one goal down to win in any of their first 43 games. The Rangers are also the only Eastern Conference team that has lost to both the Chicago Blackhawks (2-1) and Nashville Predators (2-0), two of the three worst teams in the NHL.
In contrast, one of the reasons for the success of the Blue Jackets, from whom little was expected this season after the tragic offseason death of star forward Johnny Gaudreau, if their resilience. The Jackets are 4-0 in shootouts – and in all four games, they made up deficits in the third period. Take away the four extra points Columbus has earned by rally for shootout wins, give the Rangers the two points they kicked away in OT losses this month, and voila – their places in the standings would be reversed.
There’s still plenty of time for New York to right the ship and get into the playoffs. But the Rangers can’t fritter away points in games they should win — especially when some of their rivals are doing just the opposite.
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