This isn’t what the New York Rangers signed up for in the 2025-26 NHL campaign. After hiring Mike Sullivan as head coach and naming J.T. Miller the 29th captain in franchise history, the Broadway Blueshirts expected much better. Much different. So far, it seems an eerily similar image to last season, which ended with Peter Laviolette fired.
The Rangers must bounce back. It’s easy to say it, of course, but New York must turn words into actions. Dragging a three-game losing streak and a 3-5-2 record through the first 10 games of the NHL regular season, the Blueshirts must turn the tide quick. Drama keeps knocking on the door of the Madison Square Garden, and only strong performances can sway it away.
So far, New York has done quite the opposite. One game into their road trip through the Northwest of the NHL, the Rangers got off the plane on the wrong note. The disheartening 5-1 loss at the hands of the Calgary Flames—who had lost eight games in a row—might have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. Miller definitely had enough, as he didn’t sugarcoat his thoughts after the defeat.
“You can’t be okay with coming out flat,” Miller stated, via The Athletic’s Vince Mercogliano. “We’re in no position to come out flat. We had the right mindset. We’re ready to go. We got outplayed again in the first period, and it kind of set the tone. It just sucks. This is not fun right now and we need to correct the starts. It’s becoming a trend, so we need to fix this now. It’s a hard road trip, so we’ve got to be ready to go to start the game.”
What they named him for
The Rangers made a bold decision in naming Miller captain in New York City. However, while some may see his latest outburst as discouraging or unfit for a team leader, it’s exactly what Sullivan and the brass had in mind when handing him the ‘C’.
Miller is a fierce competitor. He’ll leave everything on the ice, and afterward, if something’s bugging him, he’ll make sure the right people hear about it. Some may like it, others might not—but no one is exempt from what the captain has to say. When he speaks, everyone listens, and after the loss in Calgary, not many in New York’s locker room will forget the embarrassing night in The Stampede City.
Sullivan’s statement
Although Miller’s message perfectly summarized the sentiment inside the Rangers’ room, Sullivan didn’t steer away from speaking out his mind, as well. On that note, the two-time Stanley Cup-winning head coach made a sincere introspection amid his first weeks in charge of the franchise in The Big Apple.
“We’re not at our best right now, and we’ve got to find a way to dig our way out of it,” Sullivan commented, via The New York Post’s Mollie Walker. “I just think it starts with effort and just attention to detail on the defensive side. I thought tonight, the type of mistakes we made, they’re egregious. They’re really hard to recover from, and we gave them some pretty good looks as a result.”
Many layers to it
New York’s loss to Calgary hurts in more ways than one. The Rangers registered their sixth game of the season with one or fewer goals scored—a recipe for disaster in a high-scoring environment like the NHL.
Moreover, the Broadway Blueshirts were shut down by the Flames—who had allowed the third-most goals in the league so far (35)—and blown out of the water by the worst offense in the NHL, statistically speaking, as Calgary had scored just 15 goals coming into the game.
The second-worst goal-scoring team, however? None other than the Rangers. Two seemingly unoffensive attacks met, and the Rangers managed to be exposed by the only squad with fewer goals than them.