NHL News: NY Rangers HC Mike Sullivan points finger outside of the organization amid concerning slump

Mike Sullivan and the New York Rangers have had anything but a dream start to their journey in the NHL. Struggling to build consistency, the Broadway Blueshirts are currently stuck in the league’s basement. Now, the two-time Stanley Cup-winning head coach fired a shot outside of the organization.

Sullivan and the Rangers have done their due introspection, taking a look in the mirror amid a deflating 2025-26 NHL season. However, they’ve seemingly done enough of that. Instead, Sullivan is now looking outside of the team’s facilities in Manhattan, aiming at the outside noise in The Big Apple.

Arriving from the Steel City, Sullivan knew he’d be in for a dramatic change of scenery in New York City. Still, even the 57-year-old may have been caught off guard by the relentless buzz in the City That Never Sleeps. Sullivan made his discomfort clear with a pointed message to the Manhattan media, who have had a field day with the Rangers’ disastrous start to the season.

“There’s a lot of noise around it. You guys [in the media] make a lot of noise around it,” Mike Sullivan commented during his latest media availability in New York, via The Athletic’s Vince Mercogliano.

Mike Sullivan at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Sullivan speaks on offensive woes

Many fans around the NHL might say the numbers don’t lie. Sullivan, however, would argue they don’t tell the whole story. Addressing New York’s troubling lack of scoring, the head coach made one thing crystal clear to the fans and media listening.

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“I acknowledge that we didn’t score goals, but what I will tell you is that we generated offense,” Sullivan noted. “We track the process and detail. You can’t always control whether it goes in the net or it doesn’t. But what you can control is your ability to create offense and opportunity, and we were creating a fair amount. The puck wasn’t going in the net for us.“

Rangers’ numbers

New York owns the third-worst goals-per-game mark in the NHL. Scoring just 2.48 goals per night while giving up 2.65, it’s no mystery why the Rangers keep falling short in tight, low-scoring contests under Sullivan. Even so, the head coach delivered a firm reminder to the locker room.

“It’s amazing how when you chase offense, you don’t get as much. When you play the game the right way, the byproduct is you create offense. That was the message,” Sullivan concluded.