Recap: Rangers Sleepwalk Into Olympic Break With 2–0 Loss to Hurricanes

The final outing before the Olympic break, the first game following the Artemi Panarin trade, and another Centennial Celebration. The New York Rangers hosted the Carolina Hurricanes in game 57 of the season. Tonight’s Centennial theme was all about goaltenders as the Rangers welcomed back some familiar names who have dawned the blue paint for the Blueshirts over the years.

In addition to John Davidson, Gilles Villemure, and John Vanbiesbrouck, Mike Richter and Henrik Lundqvist would be honored throughout the second period as would Eddie Giacomin who got a nice tribute with his family in attendance.

Heading into tonight’s action, there were two changes to the lineup as Anton Blidh came in for Brennan Othmann and Vinny Iorio made his Rangers debut in place of Scott Morrow. Jonathan Quick would get the start in between the pipes.

First Period

After another seven and a half minutes of hockey where the Rangers were held without a shot on goal, Andrei Svechnikov took advantage of the Rangers taking a bad line change, picked up an errant puck courtesy of Vladislav Gavrikov and beat Quick with a speedy wrist shot. 

Shortly after the goal, former friend K’Andre Miller sent Vincent Trocheck into the boards with a cross-check, earning him the first penalty of the game. With the Rangers on the power play, both J.T. Miller and Mika Zibanejad passed up on one timer chances. Nonetheless, the Rangers managed to double their shot total from one to two yet remained off the scoreboard. 

Meanwhile, K’Andre Miller got his welcome back to MSG as he was injured during the Hurricanes first visit to New York earlier this season. 

With about seven minutes to go in the period, a bunch of players from both sides got tangled up at the Rangers blue line which resulted in Taylor Hall tripping up Noah Laba. Zibanejad had a fantastic opportunity to put his team off the board but was robbed by the crossbar before Miller was robbed by Brandon Bussi on the rebound. 

That about did it for the period as the Rangers trailed by a score of 1-0 and were being out-shot 10-8. Which sounds much closer than it really was seeing as the Hurricanes pretty much dominated play at full strength. Both teams were credited with five high danger scoring chances, all of which were on the power play for the Rangers. 

Second Period

After five more minutes of Carolina dominating possession in the Rangers end of the ice, Gavrikov was called for interference, giving the Hurricanes their first power play of the night. The Rangers came out of it unscathed but Carolina continued to dictate play. To the point where it honestly felt like the Hurricanes were playing pond hockey against a bunch of kids half their age who were just chasing them around.

In the final minute and a half of the period, Gavrikov went back to the box for holding as he tried to keep Hall from bringing the puck to the Rangers' net. The Hurricanes came so close to extending their lead as Quick sprawled around the crease to keep the puck out. During which, Trocheck cross-checked Jordan Stall which turned Carolina's advantage to a 5-on-3 with four seconds left in the period.

The Rangers would have 20 seconds of a two man advantage to fight off to start the third period. After 40 minutes of play, the Rangers were being out-shot 29-10 but here's the more telling stat. Shot attempts were 54-11 at even strength in Carolina's favor. Yes, you read that right.

Third Period

The Rangers' penalty killers again took care of business as the teams returned to even strength with the score still 1-0 Carolina. The Rangers best chance of the game came a few minutes later as Will Cuylle won a foot race and had a partial breakaway on Bussi. The Hurricanes' net minder was able to turn Cuylle's shot away to keep the lead in tact.

The Rangers followed that up with a couple more chances and some of their most consistent offense and effort throughout the evening. Alexis Lafrenière nearly had one on a one time snap shot in the slot that Bussi was able to get a glove on with about seven minutes to go.

With about a minute and a half to go, the Rangers pulled Quick for the extra attacker. After failing to maintain possession, Nikolaj Ehlers danced around the Rangers end of the ice and fed Staal in front of the net to make it a 2-0 game. That would do it for this one as the Rangers lose their fourth in a row and were out-shot 44-16.

The Rangers are off for 21 days as the league breaks for the 2026 Milan Olympics. Their next game will come on Thursday, February 26th at the Garden as they'll host the Philadelphia Flyers.