A Soundtrack to this New York Rangers Season

Let's be honest with ourselves: This 2025-26 New York Rangers season has not been fun.

We here at Blueshirt Banter (with some notable exceptions, ::cough cough:: Chip ::cough cough::) may not have had the loftiest expectations for what the Rangers would accomplish this go-around, even in a weak Eastern Conference. But even those hopes have been dashed by a team that struggles to score or do much else with any consistency.

So if this drama is going to play out like a tragedy, why not add a soundtrack to this movie? Some songs that really capture the experience of this Rangers team?

Presented for your listening pleasure, here's a soundtrack to the 2025-26 New York Rangers season, selected by the Blueshirt Banter team.

"Bad Blood" by Taylor Swift

Selected by Joe Fortunato

I care not if you love the goddess that is Taylor Swift. Hate at your own peril.

That said, tell me these lyrics do not perfectly encapsulate the feelings from two years ago to now:

'Cause, baby, now we got bad blood
You know it used to be mad love
So take a look what you've done
'Cause baby, now we got bad blood (hey!)

Now we got problems
And I don't think we can solve 'em
You made a really deep cut
And, baby, now we got bad blood (hey!)

Did you have to do this?
I was thinking that you could be trusted
Did you have to ruin
What was shiny? Now it's all rusted
Did you have to hit me
Where I'm weak? Baby, I couldn't breathe
And rub it in so deep
Salt in the wound like you're laughing right at me
Oh, it's so sad to think about the good times

And then, when thinking about the team's current options and what they should do moving forward:

Band-aids don't fix bullet holes
You say sorry just for show
If you live like that, you live with ghosts (ghosts)
Band-aids don't fix bullet holes (hey!)
You say sorry just for show (hey!)
If you live like that, you live with ghosts (hey!)
Hm, if you love like that, blood runs cold'

Mock me all you want. Boo me all you want. You know I'm right.

"Let Down" by Radiohead & "Pressure" by Billy Joel

Selected by Eric Kohn

I've got one for us Rangers fans, and I have another for the team.

I'm going to pull the hipster card here (which is incredible for how old this song is now) and say I loved this song before it was cool (and on the charts!) thanks to kids on TikTok discovering it: "Let Down" by Radiohead. For years it was my white whale. I've seen Radiohead in concert eight total times, hoping this song would make the setlist. It finally did in show number seven.

You know, you know where you are with
You know where you are with
Floor collapses, floating
Bouncing back

And one day, I am gonna grow wings
A chemical reaction (you know where you are)
Hysterical and useless (you know where you are)
Hysterical and (you know where you are)

Let down, and hanging around
Crushed like a bug in the ground
Let down, and hanging around

The most beautiful track on Radiohead's seminal 1997 album about alienation and atomization in modern technology-driven life, "OK Computer," is about the unsettled and almost lonely (in spite of being surrounded by people) feeling you get when you're traveling. And the Rangers are certainly on a journey. The floor has collapsed. We're floating. We think one day we're going to escape it all. But here we are. Hysterical. Useless. Let down and hanging around.

For the franchise itself, "Pressure" by Billy Joel:

Don't ask for help
You're all alone
Pressure
You'll have to answer
To your own
Pressure
I'm sure you'll have some cosmic rationale
But here you are in the ninth
Two men out and three men on
Nowhere to look but inside
Where we all respond to
Pressure
Pressure

Pretty self explanatory? Yes, the sports reference is to the wrong sport. So, change it to on a breakaway in overtime? It's a little tenuous, but screw it, just roll with it. Pressure is the name of the game now. Pressure on the players to prove their worth and that they should stay. Pressure on Mike Sullivan to get buy-in on his system and what he's building towards. Pressure on Chris Drury to finally and meaningfully shape the direction this franchise is going.

There's no where to look but inside.

Also, how could I not pick the Bard of Levittown for this list? After all, he's someone who has more recently hung a banner in the Madison Square Garden rafters than the Rangers.

"Troubled Land" by John Mellencamp & "If You're Going Through Hell (Before the Devil Even Knows)" by Rodney Aktins

Selected by Chip23

I've got two very different options. We'll start with "Troubled Land" by John (formerly Cougar) Mellencamp:

Well, there's two men a walking
Down the same dirty road
Bring peace to this troubled land
They stand shoulder to shoulder
Carrying the same heavy load
Bring peace to this troubled land

If that doesn't perfectly describe the mission for Mike Sullivan and Chris Drury going forward, I don't know what does. This is a troubled land and the two of them are, shoulder to shoulder, the only ones who can bring it peace. It may not be pretty, it may not be quick, but that's the mission and it's going to start with the trade deadline.

And then there's "If You're Going Through Hell (Before the Devil Even Knows)" by Rodney Aktins:

If you're going through hell keep on going
Don't slow down if you're scared don't show it
You might get out before the devil even knows you're there
Yeah if you're going through hell keep on moving
Face that fire walk right through it
You might get out before the devil even knows you're there

The Rangers are not going to do a protracted rebuild. They're going to keep on going. They're in hell right now and they're going to keep moving forward, keep working the plan that Drury and Sullivan put in motion the day Sullivan decided to come on board. They're going to hope that they get out of this Hell before the Devil even knows they're there.

"Hope is a Dangerous Little Thing" by The Menzingers

Selected by Chris Feldman

For years I've kept it to myself
Pretending we are picture perfect
But I barely got my shit together
Cracking under little pressure
I'm afraid I'm not the one
The one you want is someone else

They say hope is a dangerous, dangerous little thing
To keep finding out the hard way
What tomorrow never brings

For as dreadful as this team often is—especially in recent history—they always seem to find a way to give you hope. Whether it's in the form of a come-from-behind win in a game they had no business winning, a rare dominant victory where they give a complete sixty minute effort, or simply a fun, memorable one like we saw in the Winter Classic, they always seems to hook you back in right when you're on the brink of giving up completely.

This song is about wanting something you can't have and while the lyrics are surely referring to a romantic relationship, the concept can easily be applied to being a Rangers fan. We all want this team to be a successful, champion level franchise that's in contention more often than not, yet we indeed keep finding out the hard way, what tomorrow never brings. It's fun to hope, but hope isn't a viable strategy for building a hockey team. But at the end of the day, all we can do as fans, is hope. And every time the Rangers pull off one of those types of wins, that chorus is one of the first things that comes to mind. Also The Menzingers are just an outstanding band I highly recommend you all check out. But remember, hope is certainly, a dangerous little thing, my friends.

"Iris" by The Goo Goo Dolls

Selected by Keegan Jarvis

And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

With this pick, I'm specifically thinking of the live performance The Goo Goo Dolls did in the pouring rain back in 2004.

This current Rangers team, in a way, is made to be broken. General manager Chris Drury and head coach Mike Sullivan have a vision for what they want their team to be. Some players have embraced the change like Mika Zibanejad, who looks significantly more engaged than he did last season. Some players simply don't fit the system, namely Artemi Panarin, whose finesse game clashes with the Drury/Sullivan style. That said, the Rangers want you to know who they are—or at least, who they're trying to be—by the season's end.

"Descending" by Tool

Selected by Phil Kocher

Come, our end, suddenly
All hail our lethargy
Concede suddenly
To the quickened dissolution
Pray we mitigate the ruin
Calling all to arms and order
Drifting through this boundlessness
This madness of our own making
Sound our dire reveille

The lyrics of Tool's "Descending" evoke a slow, ominous slide from order into chaos—a sense of inevitability as cracks form and momentum shifts—which mirrors the Rangers' season as early promise (false that it was) have given way to uncertainty and instability. The song's themes of complacency, warning signs ignored, and the creeping realization that course correction may come too late feel like a fitting analogue for a team watching its structure erode shift-by-shift, game-by-game, fully aware of the fall, yet incapable of reversing it. Sound the dread alarm.

"Dead Meat" by Sean Ono Lennon & "Dance (Ass)" by Big Sean

Selected by Snark Messier

Two songs instantaneously came to mind, both from very different ends of the musical spectrum. The first song is "Dead Meat" by Sean Ono Lennon.

"Dead Meat" is what I imagine the New York Rangers listen to before they play at Madison Square Garden, either via a Bluetooth speaker or, respectively, via their own personal set of headphones. A hauntingly beautiful ballad from the youngest son of the legendary Beatle John Lennon, "Dead Meat" starts off with Sean saying:

Dead meat, don't you know that you're dead meat?
You just messed with the wrong team

And frankly, seeing as the Rangers are 5-10-4 at home, they did in fact mess with the wrong team, several times, under the roof that Dolan owns.

The there's "Dance (Ass)" by Big Sean, perfectly captures the 2025-26 season for the New York Rangers within the first ten seconds is:

Ass, ass, ass, ass, ass
Ass, ass, ass, ass, ass
Ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass
Stop

Ass is what the Rangers typically play like on any given night. Ass is what this season will likely end up as. And, ass is what we'll see on a per-game basis if Igor Shesterkin is out long-term due to an injury. It gets even more accurate when the Detroit native exclaims:

Go stupid, go stupid, go stupid

Stupid is an understatement for some of the gaffes that we've witnessed this season, the latest of which being Mike Sullivan deciding that Urho Vaakanainen needed to play over Matthew Robertson. "Go stupid," indeed, folks.

"Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin

Selected by Roberto Solis-Byxbee

Duhhluhhduhhluhhduhluhduhluh
Da luh duhduduh loooowoooooooo

I've been on a real jazz kick lately, so when Eric announced this fun group project, my mind immediately began turning over which jazz piece or group best represents the 2025-26 season for the New York Rangers. And it immediately came to mind: The symphonic jazz classic "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin.

That playful clarinet glissando at the beginning of the piece, that flutters through a scale to peak and soar as it hits the high note and plays its way back down with the support of the orchestra, makes my heart flutter every time I hear it. It starts off so powerful and promising, only to trend its way back down into the gutter with the rest of us. Which reminds me that every year, my hopes and dreams soar with this team, and this season they've crashed and burned.

Rhapsody means "an enthusiastic expression of feeling," and it being accompanied by the word blue lends itself well to both the Blueshirts and the depression this team's follies have caused me.

"No Leaf Clover" by Metallica

Selected by Jake DiBlasio

Says it feels right this time
Turned it 'round and found the right line
Good day to be alive Sir
Good day to be alive, he said

Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel
Is just a freight train coming your way
Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel
Is just the freight train coming your way

This season has felt like every time the Rangers seem to get their head above water, it is short lived. From the beginning of the year, they generated plenty of chances but couldn’t score. It seemed like they were just getting a bad break but they were able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. All they needed to do was get the puck in the back of the net. That never happened as they have failed to consistently score on offense.

Another stretch of games that makes me think of this song is the four game stretch that took place at the beginning of December against the Dallas Stars, Ottawa Senators, Colorado Avalanche, and Vegas Golden Knights. The Rangers got points in each of those games despite Adam Fox being out with an injury. Whatever momentum they built up left immediately as they lost four of their next five.

Even recently, the amazing performance at the Winter Classic was followed by an overtime loss against the Utah Mammoth which resulted in the team losing and Igor Shesterkin and Adam Fox getting injured. It feels the second the team sees light at the end of the tunnel, it was only a freight train heading their way.

For your listening pleasure, here are all of our selections in a Spotify playlist: