Rangers Destroy the Canucks with Garand in Net

By Daniel Feuerstein | New York, NY | October 11th, 2026

The New York Rangers began their first game without starting goaltender Igor Shesterkin, as he is done for the entire season. They faced the visiting Vancouver Canucks, who are on their East Coast road trip. From the opening puck drop to the end of the game, the Rangers played a fantastic game of hockey where they were relentless in attacking the Canucks on the ice, and they got some solid goaltending to grab the two points and remain victorious on Garden Ice as the Rangers took the win by a final score of 6-2

Tye Kartye scores two goals

When the Rangers picked up Tye Kartye off waivers last season from the Seattle Kraken, many thought he was coming to the team for defensive purposes. But since he came over, he’s had some excellent chances to score goals for the Rangers. In this game, he proved he can score and be a defensive player on a line with J.T. Miller. His speed and savvy have been amazing to watch, and on the first shift of the game, he got a chance to bury his shot and scored a second in the middle period.

Inside the opening minute of the game, the Rangers were able to get the puck out of their zone, and a quick touch pass from Alexis Lafreniere helped set up the rush. J.T. Miller got the puck and went on a two-on-one at the Canucks net. He took the shot, and it was saved, but the rebound came straight towards Kartye, and he buried the puck for his first of the game at 27 seconds of the first period. His second was an amazing shot as the Rangers continued to play the speed game. Vladislav Gavrikov made a cross-ice pass to Miller at the near boards, then he made his own cross-ice pass back to Kartye. Glided towards the far faceoff circle and ripped one off the post and in at 18:25 of the second period.

Will Cuylle also gets a pair

When Will Cuylle originally came up with the Rangers, we’ve seen him become a solid defensive player with a solid right hand when he has to drop the gloves. But since last season, his goal-scoring ability has jumped the charts, and he’s been active with his stick. He had a two-goal game, was in great position to get both goals, and looked dangerous. On the first goal, he got a pass from Noah Laba at Center Ice and skated through two Canuck defenders, and when he got to the top of the far faceoff circle, he ripped a shot that went in at 2:09 of the second period.

On Cuylle’s second goal, he started the rush up the ice and gave the puck to Braden Schneider, who entered the zone. A quick passing play towards Eeli Tolvanen, who was behind him, then skated towards the far boards and then ripped a shot. Another juicy rebound was left for Cuylle as he was in front of the net inside the slot and swept it in at 15:22 of the third period. Cuylle has been amazing and continues to show he is improving, and hopefully he can become a consistent goal scorer.

A big Power Play Goal

The Rangers went on the power play in the third period and were looking to end this game quickly by adding more goals. They did so as there was confusion and calamity from the Canucks in this game. The Rangers were playing the puck along the far boards as they were trying to get into position to set up the power play. As Miller was trying to skate to the top of the crease, Kevin Lankinen came out of his crease and tripped up Miller with his right pad. Lankinen slid away from his net too far as Mika Zibanejad received the puck at the far point. Passed it down low to Gabe Perreault, who quickly found Alexis Lafreniere diving towards the net and scored his power-play goal at 1:04 of the third period.

Perreault racking up the goals

Gabe Perreault is showing everyone in the NHL why he is an up-and-coming superstar, as he was part of two World Junior Championship Gold Medals. He has earned points in four of his first six games of the season, either scoring or setting up chances. He did it again with his skating and stick placement to redirect the puck into the net. Pavel Dorofeyev retreived the puck inside the Canucks’ zone and found Mika Zibanejad at the end boards. A hard pass to Adam Fox inside the far faceoff circle, and then he gave a shot-pass to Perreault as he redirected the puck past Lankinen at 5:57 of the third period.

Dylan Garand was solid again

At the moment, Dylan Garand made his second start of the season and will be the starter until Joonas Korpisalo comes off the injury list. But just like his start with the Detroit Red Wings, he played a fabulous game in net to help the Rangers get the win. Even though he gave up two goals in this game, his third period was magnificent, and he knows he will be leaned on for the entire season without Igor Shesterkin due to injury. Garand has proven he is ready for the NHL, and while it would’ve been nice to leave him in Hartford with the Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League, the reality is he is ready for this level. We’lll see how he handles better competition later in the season, but right now Garand has the confidence to get the job done.

“I give a lot of credit to our leadership group. I think they have a lot to do with it, you know, just leading by example for starters, first and foremost. And I think leadership is a big part of that, and I give the guys credit. I think they understand the importance of playing on your toes, playing the game the right way. We want to be a team that doesn’t sit back and sit on our heels and tries to defend a lead. We want to be proactive and continue to play on our toes and try to dictate the terms out there; just do it in a responsible way. But I think a lot of it boils down to our leadership. I give our veteran guys, JT, Foxy, Mika, those guys, I think those guys are leading the charge there.

We got dealt tough news with Shesterkin. You know everybody feels that without a doubt i mean we feel for shesty first and foremost uh because we know how much he cares about playing and loves to play and being part of the team and all of those things, and, then he happens to be you know arguably our very best player and so, that’s a tough blow.

A tough blow to the group, but once again you know you can only control the things that are within your power and um and i you know our players are well aware of that and we’ve you know we had that discussion and um you know i think this group is mature and you know i think these guys they haven’t lost any level of enthusiasm I think they believe in the team game that we’re trying to build here. And I think we’ll continue to compete. And that’s, at the end of the day, our challenge. And that’s the discussion we had. Expectations don’t change. You know, it’s next man up mentality. It’s going to provide opportunities for others. Take advantage of it,” said Mike Sullivan

LET IT ROLL: The Rangers have won all four games at The Garden this season, the longest active winning streak at home in the league. Their five wins and 10 points this season are both tied for the league lead.

GOAL SCORERS: Having scored a season high of six goals tonight, the Rangers have now scored four or more points in four of their seven games this season and five or more goals in three of them, both tied for the most games in the NHL. Their 23 goals scored this season are tied for fifth in the league.

MULTI-POINT PLAYERS: Six different Rangers skaters notched multi-point games tonight: Will Cuylle (2G), Tye Kartye (2G), Alexis Lafreniere (1G-1A), J.T. Miller (2A), Gabe Perreault (1G-1A) and Mika Zibanejad (2A). Eleven different New York skaters tallied at least one point.

TYE KARTYE: Scored New York’s fastest game-opening goal of the season (0:27), the fourth-fastest tally the Rangers have scored in the past five years. He registered his second career multi-goal game and his first of the season. He has tallied four points (2G-2A) through his last five games.

ALEXIS LAFRENIERE: Extended his goal streak to three-straight games (5G) and his point streak to four-straight games (5G-2A). His three-game goal streak is tied for the league lead. Among all NHL skaters this season, he is tied for fifth in goals (5) and is tied for ninth in points (8). He currently leads the Rangers in goals and points.

MIKA ZIBANEJAD: Notched his 287th career power play point and his 250th as a Ranger, becoming the third Rangers skater in franchise history to do so. Notching his 174th career multi-point game and his 78th career multi-assist game, he surpassed Artemi Panarin for the sixth-most multi-point games in franchise history and surpassed Walt Tkaczuk for the seventh-most multi-assist games. This season, Zibanejad is tied for the team lead in assists (6) and is tied for sixth among all NHL skaters.

DYLAN GARAND: Notched his second-consecutive win at home and has now won each of his two starts this season. He became the eighth rookie goaltender in franchise history to record wins in each of his first two starts and the third in 40 years to do so (the last was Igor Shesterkin – 2GS in 2019-20).

GABE PERREAULT: Tallied his first multi-point game of the season (1G-1A) and has recorded at least one point in five of his seven games played this season. He is tied for third on the Rangers with six points and is tied for second on the team with three goals.

J.T. MILLER: Notched his first multi-point game of the season (2A) and extended his point streak to four straight games (1G-4A).

WILL CUYLLE: Scored his first two goals of the season tonight and notched his fifth career multi-goal game.