Rangers with a Good Start, Bent in the middle, Lost it late as they fall to the Kraken

A strong start ended in another loss

New York, NY- After their embarrassing loss to the Bruins over the weekend, the New York Rangers returned to Madison Square Garden to face their next opponent from the Pacific Northwest as they faced the Seattle Kraken. It was a strong start in the opening period, but as the game wore on, the Rangers continued to leak goals and lost it in the third, as they fell to the Kraken by a final score of four to two.

Bank job and in

Carson Soucy retrieved the puck on the far side of the ice, then made a strong crossice pass to the near side to Artemi Panarin. He skated along the boards and made a strong pass inside the Kraken’s zone, allowing Mika Zibanejad to skate in on the far side, and his shot was missed. As the puck bounced off the end boards, Zibanejad got to the rebound and banked the puck off the back of the left leg of Philipp Grubauer and over the goal line at 3:08 of the first period.

Carrick gets a gift

The Kraken were inside their own zone defending against the Rangers, then they tried to start a rush up ice to create a play. All of a sudden, poor puck control and a wild sequence where the defender just coughed up the puck just inside his blueline, and Sam Carrick quickly jumped on it and headed down the near side. He snapped a hard shot that beat Grubauer at 5:31 of the first period.

Stolen at center, got beat to the near side

The Rangers were playing well after the first 20 minutes of the game, and had a solid start to the second period, until Gabe Perreault at center ice lost the puck to Freddy Gaudreau at the near boards. The Karken skated hard inside the Rangers’ zone, a quick pass to the slot for Eeli Tolvanen, then he makes a quick move to his right, and just snaps the puck to his left and beats Jonathan Quick at the one-minute mark of the second period.

Plenty of time to tie the game

The Kraken were cycling inside the Rangers’ zone and had time to set up a play. Matty Beniers kept the puck deep from the near boards, finding former Ranger Kappo Kakko at the end boards. He skated behind the net and hung out from behind the far post. He saw Jordan Eberle in the slot and passed the puck to him. Eberle had plenty of time to look at where he wanted to shoot and went top shelf inside the far corner at 4:27 of the second period.

Crash the net, take the lead

The Rangers tried to retake the lead, but were stopped many times by Grubauer. Then, the Kraken skated down the ice and made a big play when former Ranger Ryan Lindgren made a quick pass to a wide-open Shane Wright at the far side and tried to shoot it, but Quick got his right pad on it. Then, trailing the play was Berkly Catton, as he crashed the net, getting his stick on the loose puck, and got the lead at 12:02 of the third period.

Empty Net and dropped points again

The Rangers pulled Quick for an extra attacker, but unfortunately, it didn’t work as the Kraken got an empty net goal from Jared McCann at 19:30 of the third period to slam the door on the Rangers. This one was a tough pill to swallow, as you hoped for a bounce-back game after the embarrassment in Boston over the weekend. You saw it in the first period, but once the second began, it was all over, and back to the drawing board for Mike Sullivan.

“This is a fragile group right now. We just got to keep digging in. You know, this game isn’t. For the faint of heart. You know, it’s a hard game. When you go through circumstances like this, my experience has been that you have to try to simplify the game. I think that’s always part of the solution is simplifying the game out there, not looking for the next play, shooting the puck more, going to the net, trying to create.

Off the shot a little bit more. Defending hard and staying in the moment, you know, we can’t get overwhelmed by the circumstance. You know, as I said to you guys on so many occasions, here that you know this is a good group of guys and they care a lot about what’s going on. When you don’t have success, nobody feels it more than us. And so. I understand the circumstances that we’re in. But, you know, the answers are inside our locker room, and that’s where we have to look for them,” said Head Coach Mike Sullivan

MIKA ZIBANEAJD: scored his 18th goal of the season, extending his point streak to six-straight games (6G-6A). His six goals in the 2026 calendar year are tied for the most among all skaters in the league.

ARTEMI PANARIN: Tallied his 600th point as a Ranger, notching the feat in the fewest games in franchise history (475 GP). Since 2019-20, his 600 points rank fifth in the NHL. With his assist on Zibanejad’s goal, he extended his assist streak to seven-straight games (10A), the longest active streak among all NHL skaters.

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