The Rangers got off to such robust begins at the starting of the season that the team didn’t give up a single first-period purpose until their seventh recreation.
Over their previous seven contests, however, the Blueshirts have allowed a mixed 9 first-period targets while scoring only 5. The excessive degree of power they had at puck drop earlier this season has steadily slipped, most just lately ensuing in a two-goal deficit by the first intermission on the method to a 6-3 loss to the Kings on Monday evening at Madison Square Garden.
“The biggest thing for me was I didn’t love the start,” head coach Mike Sullivan said after the loss. “I just didn’t think, from a mindset standpoint, I don’t think we had enough guys that were ready to play from the drop of the puck. So we’ve got to fix that fast. The onus is on each individual to get himself ready for when the puck drops. It wasn’t everybody, but we just didn’t have enough.”
After giving up two targets on the first two pictures he confronted, veteran goalie James Reimer heard sarcastic applause from the MSG crowd for making his first save in a crimson, white and blue sweater.
The very first Kings purpose came off a Drew Doughty main feed to Taylor Ward, who break up Rangers defensemen Sean Durzi and Marcus Pettersson for a breakaway purpose.
Sullivan ended up splitting Durzi and Pettersson later in the recreation after they were on for the Kings second purpose as properly.
New York Rangers goaltender James Reimer reacts after permitting a purpose in the first interval during an NHL recreation against the Los Angeles Kings at Madison Square Garden in New York, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
Durzi took some shifts next to Alberts Smits, while Pettersson skated alongside Braden Schneider.
“It was an accumulation of events over time,” Sullivan said of what led to the determination. “We felt as a teaching workers, for the first in all probability seven or eight video games, Marcus and Durz were a fairly stable pair for us. They get laborious minutes, they get a lot of D-zone begins against high gamers. That pair has been fairly stable for us. I think the last 5 or six it’s been a little bit of a battle for them, for whatever purpose. Durz is battling through some stuff bodily and I’m positive that might be half of it.
“But we just felt to affect a little bit of change, maybe we’ll split the pairs and see what we get. It wasn’t a reaction to the game tonight, it was an accumulation of events over the course of the last probably four or five games.”
Ex-Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette returned to MSG on Monday for the first time since his April 2025 firing.
“I really enjoyed being here,” said Laviolette, who is now head coach of the Kings. “I love being at Madison Square Garden. I mean, the New York fans were just awesome. I can’t tell you how many times I was around the country and somebody would come up to me and say, ‘I’m the biggest Rangers fan ever.’ And I’m like, ‘They’re all the biggest Rangers fans ever.’ And I think they are. They talk about the history of how their grandfather took them to a game like 50 years ago, and they’re 60 years old and now they’re taking their grandkids. Because it’s been around for 100 years, you get stories like that. “You can feel the passion from the people and the fans, and it’s pretty cool to be in a city like this. It’s one of the greatest cities in the country. It’s a huge sports market. It’s Madison Square Garden. It’s the New York Rangers. There was a lot of things that I loved about being here and part of New York.”
Adam Fox skated in his five hundredth NHL recreation and prolonged his home level streak to seven straight video games (one purpose, eight assists).
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