The New York Rangers have lost four games in a row and seven of their past eight since returning from the holiday break. The team sits last in points percentage with a 20-21-6 record past the midway point of the season.
“We’re definitely a little bit of a fragile group right now,” defenseman **Braden Schneider** said. “The guys know we’re a good team. We believe that we have the ability to win games, and guys still believe in here that we’re good. We’ve just got to make sure that we’re not letting the small things that happen in a game get to us.”
Those small things are creating major problems for New York. The Rangers need to make up ground in a competitive Eastern Conference where all 16 teams are separated by just 15 points.
They’re running out of time to become legitimate playoff contenders.
“It’s not fun to lose,” said center **Mika Zibanejad**, who has scored six goals in five games and leads the team with 18. “We’re trying to look for answers, trying to find answers. Maybe it doesn’t look it at times, I understand that, but we’re trying to do everything we can to try to get a win.”
Coach Mike Sullivan delivered a message after his team’s most recent loss Monday night at home to Seattle. The two-time Stanley Cup champion from his time with Pittsburgh said “The answers are inside our locker room.” He’s preaching positivity at arguably the toughest point of his first season with New York.
“We’ve got to bring an unwavering level of enthusiasm to what we do every day if we’re going to ultimately pull ourselves out of this,” Sullivan said. “We’re not going to dwell on anything. We’re not going to get overwhelmed by circumstance or the noise.”
The noise centers around the March 6 trade deadline, which is less than two months away. A lengthy pause in February for the Olympics sits in between.
Winger Artemi Panarin doesn’t have a contract beyond June 30. New York’s leading scorer every season since signing as a free agent in 2019 turns 35 on Oct. 31. He could be the first big-money player traded.
With 14 games remaining before the deadline, it’s an uphill climb. The Rangers need to push general manager Chris Drury into buying or standing pat rather than selling and beginning the process of retooling an aging roster.
“We still have a chance to compete and just climb in the standings,” defenseman **Vladislav Gavrikov** said. “We’ve got to do it now because after the Olympic break, that would be maybe a little late, so we need it now, (and) we’ve got to be desperate every single night.”
A 10-2 loss at Boston on national television Saturday was humbling. But most defeats haven’t been so lopsided.
Instead, they’ve come from mistakes. An ill-timed line change here. A missed assignment there. These errors compound on each other and lead to goals against.
“I don’t think it’s for a lack of effort,” captain **J.T. Miller** said. “Just mistakes, and we talked about playing smart, as well as hard. Just some things we need to clean up.”
The absences of franchise goaltender Igor Shesterkin and top defenseman Adam Fox have contributed to this skid. Players like Schneider, Gavrikov and nearly-40-year-old Jonathan Quick have been pressed into bigger roles with heavier workloads.
They’re not close to being back on the ice, according to Sullivan. He doesn’t want to use injuries as an excuse.
“We haven’t won a lot lately, and when you have key players out that help you in that regard, I just think that’s what you’re fighting against,” Sullivan said. “These guys are human beings, and they have emotions and feelings and things like that that you have to try and manage.”
With the solution needing to come from within, veterans are hoping they can lead the Rangers out of this situation. Even if they’re short on words to explain it.
“There’s no answer,” center **Vincent Trocheck** said. “It really is just trying to come together as a group, have some enthusiasm, try to have fun with the game and then get better at the things that we’re doing wrong.”
