The New York Rangers hired Mike Sullivan with the goal of turning this team around. New York failed to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2024-25. It was a messy season on and off the ice. And they hoped a new voice in the locker room would give the team a new direction and energy. So far, the returns aren't promising.
The Rangers have struggled to score goals at home this year. But now the team's performance on the road is suffering. New York lost to the struggling Calgary Flames by the score of 5-1. It was not a pretty performance, as the team could not contain Calgary in any area of the ice.
It's hard to truly pinpoint a central reason for New York's failure so far. However, Sullivan believes he knows the root cause. He took time to call out his team's effort on defense following the crushing road loss to the Flames on Sunday.
“We're not at our best right now, and we've got to find a way to dig our way out of it. I just think it starts with effort and just attention to detail on the defensive side,” the Rangers head coach said, via Vince Mercogliano of The Athletic.
Rangers' Mike Sullivan compares defensive performances through 2025-26
Sullivan does not believe this drop in defensive quality came from nowhere. Rather, it's been a slow progression to this point. He pointed to earlier examples of New York playing the sort of defensive hockey that would more than keep them in games.
“I thought for a lot of this year, we had done a real good job at controlling the defensive side of the puck and limiting, not only quality of chances, but quantity of chances. I thought tonight, the types of mistakes we made, they're egregious. They're really hard to recover from, and we gave (the Flames) some pretty good looks as a result,” the Rangers head coach said, via Mercogliano.
New York has the talent to make things happen, at least on paper. However, games are not played on paper. They need to figure out how to climb out of this hole. The Rangers take the ice again on Tuesday night, hoping to avoid a fourth straight loss.
