In their last big road trip of the 2024-25 season, the New York Rangers had a massive chance to increase their chances of making the playoffs. They headed to California to take the Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks, and San Jose Sharks. Coming into the trip, it was a given that they needed to beat both the Ducks and Sharks at least, and if they could have beaten or gotten a point in the game against the Kings, the road swing would have been a success. However, the team came out of the road trip still on the outside looking in, with just one win and three out of a possible six points. With a much tougher schedule to end the season, this road trip will be looked back on as a missed opportunity if they fail to make the playoffs.
A Close Loss to the Los Angeles Kings
The first game of the trip saw them take on their toughest opponent, the Los Angeles Kings. The Kings have the best home record in the NHL with a 27-4-4 record and are 7-3-0 in their last 10 games. It was a scoreless game after the first period, a period in which the Rangers got outplayed and were outshot 8-2. However, the Rangers struck first in the second period after a goal from J.T. Miller that was reviewed to make sure it completely crossed the goal line. They were controlling the play for a majority of the period until they took a penalty halfway through the period. Now, the Kings have a bottom-five power-play in the league, and the Rangers have the sixth-best penalty kill in the league. In this special teams battle, it was the Kings who came out on top.
Kevin Fiala got the first of two power-play goals for the Kings in the second period. Phillip Danault scored the second to give them the lead heading into the third period. The Rangers just could not find their offense in this game, and Fiala scored an empty-net goal to seal the win for the Kings. This was always going to be the toughest game of the trip, and while you would have liked to see them at least get a point, given how close the score was, the Kings are a very good defensive team, and the Rangers just could not find a way to get the game-tying goal.
An Embarassing Loss in Anaheim
This was a game the Rangers needed to win and should have won, but in the end, they blew it. They came out of the first period with a 2-1 lead off goals from Miller and Adam Fox. Then, Alexis Lafreniere scored 17 seconds into the second period to give them a 3-1 lead heading into the third period. The Ducks made it 3-2, but Mika Zibanejad scored a power-play goal, the first one the team had scored in eight games, to give them a 4-2 lead with five minutes left in the third period. It seemed they would win the game to snag two important two points, but in typical Rangers fashion, they blew that lead and lost the game in overtime to walk away with just one.
Related: A Single Takeaway From The Rangers’ Worst Loss of the Season
This has been what the Rangers have done all season, and it still hasn’t been fixed. They take the lead against a lesser opponent, and then they decide to sit back and just let them keep coming at them with scoring chance after scoring chance. With how poorly this team is structured defensively, it was no surprise the Ducks ended up tying and winning this game. The Rangers of last season would have easily won this game, but this season, something just isn’t clicking, and it has cost them numerous games over the campaign. A game in which they should have walked away with two points ended with them getting one and looking like complete choke artists in the process.
An Offensive Explosion in San Jose
After a loss like that, the Rangers had to go play the next night against an even worse San Jose team, and this time, they made no mistakes. Artemi Panarin scored two goals in the first period for a 2-0 lead, Fox would add two more during the game, and Johnny Brodzinski and Vincent Trocheck also scored to make the final 6-1. Jonathan Quick looked great and made the saves he needed to throughout the game and the Rangers finally got a win on this trip and their second win in the last seven games. They dominated against a team they should have and made very few mistakes in the defensive zone, which helped them secure the victory to end the trip.
The win briefly pushed the Rangers back into the second wild-card position, but the Montreal Canadiens now occupy that spot because they have a game in hand with the same number of points. Right now, it seems no team wants to secure that wild-card spot, as all of the clubs in the race have losing records over their last 10 games. It’s a five-team race with the Canadiens, Rangers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Detroit Red Wings, and New York Islanders all still in the mix with fewer than 10 games to go. Considering how poorly these teams have been playing of late, a good winning streak from any of the teams might be all it takes to get into the playoffs.
The Rangers had a chance to bolster their playoff spot during this road trip, and they failed to do so by losing a close game to the Kings and blowing two different two-goal leads against the Ducks to lose in overtime before getting a much-needed win against the Sharks. With just eight games remaining in their season, the Rangers now need to kick it into high gear because other teams around them have games in hand. The last one or two games may decide who gets into the playoffs.
