Games that will haunt the New York Rangers this offseason
Throughout a season, every team will have games it lets get away. The good ones also find a way to steal points back. That means winning games in which they have to dig deep, which is what the 2023-24 New York Rangers did frequently, leading the league with 28 comeback wins, 14 of which came in the third period.
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This season has been different in just about every way. New York has only 15 comeback wins, and the Rangers have let plenty of points slip through their fingers.
'It's been throughout the season that we haven't been able to put ourselves in a better spot to give ourselves a real chance,' Mika Zibanejad said after Wednesday's loss to Philadelphia.
As this disappointing season winds down, let's take a look at the games that could haunt the Rangers the most entering the offseason. These aren't games in which they came out and played poorly, though there are plenty of examples there, too. These are times the team put themselves in a position to pick up one point — and sometimes two — and bungled it.
New York had a two-goal lead 35 minutes into the game and then gave up five consecutive goals to a Seattle club that averages under three goals per game. The Rangers pushed to get within a goal late and then allowed an empty-net goal to Yanni Gourde. New York players have talked about how they let poor play snowball, and this is an example of that from the first half of the season.
Also, New York has failed to score a game-tying empty-net goal this season. Had the Rangers gotten one here, it would have at least pushed them to overtime so they could've stolen a point.
With under three minutes to go and the Rangers leading by a goal, Dallas forward Sam Steel pressured K'Andre Miller in New York's defensive zone. Steel disrupted a Miller pass attempt, grabbed possession and eventually passed to Thomas Harley, who scored from the slot. The game went to overtime, and Jamie Benn won it for Dallas. The Rangers had to settle for one point instead of what should have been two.
K'Andre Miller with a tough turnover and Thomas Harley makes up for his delay of game penalty by tying it 🫨 pic.twitter.com/hMF7gfnTkc
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) January 8, 2025
New York played a quality game in Denver, but Ryan Lindgren couldn't box out Artturi Lehkonen enough to prevent the Finnish forward from grabbing a rebound with 1 minute, 13 seconds left and scoring a six-on-five goal. The Rangers had an overtime power play but couldn't capitalize on four-on-three, and Zibanejad couldn't finish a breakaway after it ended. Devon Toews scored the winner for Colorado in the final minute. It was another one-point game that should've been two.
NO QUIT IN THE AVALANCHE!! 🙌
Devon Toews completes the comeback and wins it for the @Avalanche in @Energizer overtime! pic.twitter.com/dgN32Ik1Po
— NHL (@NHL) January 15, 2025
Lehkonen could appear in the Rangers' nightmares all summer. After sending the Avalanche-Rangers game to overtime earlier in the month, he scored the game-winning goal with 15 seconds left in New York. To add some pain, the goal came right after a Rangers' power play expired. Will Borgen made an ill-fated pass that Cale Makar intercepted coming out of the penalty box, and a tired Artemi Panarin had a lackluster backcheck in the leadup to Lehkonen's goal. If a team gets a power play in the final three minutes of a tie game, it should at least be able to get it to overtime and pick up a point in the standings. The Rangers failed to do that.
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The Rangers were neck and neck with the Senators in the wild-card standings at the time of this game, and New York had a 3-1 lead midway through the third period. Ottawa, which outshot the Rangers 37-23 in the game, then scored twice to send the game to overtime. Brady Tkachuk won it for the Senators after K'Andre Miller passed behind J.T. Miller in overtime. Not only did the Rangers flush a point down the toilet, but they also gave a playoff competitor two.
"THE OVERTIME HERO AGAINST NEW YORK" 😤
Brady Tkachuk with a game-winner in OT‼️ pic.twitter.com/2XStjjyYwp
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 8, 2025
This game is probably the most excusable of the ones included on this list. The Rangers never led and were going against a strong Winnipeg club, but they had a chance to tie the game with Igor Shesterkin pulled. A puck bounced to Zibanejad right next to the goal in the final minute, and goalie Connor Hellebuyck was on the other side of his crease, leaving a chunk of the net open. Zibanejad whacked the puck out of midair, but it sailed over the net. Zibanejad threw his head backward in frustration after the play. It would have been a difficult goal to score, but the opportunity was there. The sequence encapsulated the Rangers' struggles at six-on-five this season.
After the collapse in Ottawa earlier in March, the Rangers blew another multi-goal lead late in the third period, this time against Jacob Trouba and the Ducks. Anaheim then dominated possession in overtime. It whipped the puck around the offensive zone until Mason McTavish redirected a puck into the net.
Mason McTavish is so casual with it 🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/NxYipyrmRe
— NHL (@NHL) April 8, 2025
There are other embarrassing losses not on this list because they didn't meet the 'slip-away' criteria. Losing to Chicago and Nashville in December when each club was last in the league standings was regrettable, but New York didn't blow leads in either. But if you pair two points in one or both of those games with the points the Rangers could've gotten in the games that slipped away, New York would be in the mix for a playoff spot.
But that's not how this season has gone. Good teams avoid these types of losses, or at least find ways to get points back through unexpected comeback wins of their own. But that's not the type of team these Rangers are.
(Photo of Mason McTavish: Nicole Vasquez / NHLI via Getty Images)
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