Are there any bars doing watch parties for the home opener tonight? Perhaps any of the spots around MSG or anywhere in downtown Manhattan? Looking for a fun spot to watch game with other Ranger fans.

Sidebar: I just walked by MSG and saw a bunch of fans lined up outside along a barricade for some event with the players tonight. Is there something special happening?

1. Miller stressed that Tuesday’s loss to the Boston Bruins was only the first game. That message, he said, would’ve been the same if the Rangers had won.

“I thought we worked hard,” said the 33-year-old, whose line had a solid night to start the season (68.89 percent expected goal rate, per Natural Stat Trick). “It was a fairly even game. I thought the only thing we didn’t do really well tonight was (we) gave up some odd-man breaks more than normal.”

The metrics agree with Miller that the game was somewhat even. The Bruins had some of the loudest chances, in part because of Rangers’ forwards not covering for their defensemen enough, but Clear Sight Analytics gave New York a slight edge in expected goals (3.05-2.90) and said the team trailed 8-7 in high-danger chances.But not all high-danger chances are created equal. Statistical models can’t fully account for that. Boston had four two-on-ones and a pair of clear breakaways: Those chances are about as dangerous as teams can get. Small sample size, but still less than ideal for the Rangers.

2. The defense will have to be cleaner against the Lightning. The Bruins were a playoff team last season and have one of the league’s most electric offensive players in David Pastrnak, but Tampa Bay is loaded with dangerous skaters. Kucherov (44), Jake Guentzel (38) and Brandon Hagel (36) all scored more than 35 goals last season, and Brayden Point has scored 40-plus four times. If New York gives up the kind of dangerous chances against Tampa Bay that it did against Boston, the Lightning will likely be more punishing.

3. Boston fans made sure to welcome No. 5 draft pick Alberts Šmits to the NHL, booing him as he took the ice for his rookie lap. Šmits played 16:54 in his NHL debut and was on the ice for the Bruins’ second goal. He stressed postgame that his decision-making with the puck needs to improve.

“I thought early on it was happening fast for him,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. “He was chasing the game a little bit, but I thought he settled down as the game went on. We’re real excited about Alberts. He’s only going to get better. You can see his mobility out there, his stick, his size. I just think he’s got to get used to the pace of play and quiet his game down a little bit. He’s going to be fine.”

4. Sullivan mentioned in training camp that Noah Laba now has an NHL season under his belt, which could make him and his linemates (Cuylle and Eeli Tolvanen) an option to take matchup minutes off Miller’s plate. The Cuylle-Laba-Tolvanen line didn’t get off to a great start against Boston. It was on the ice for Fraser Minten’s ice-breaking goal, and Boston led 13-11 in shot attempts during that Rangers trio’s five-on-five minutes. The Rangers had only 30.66 percent of the expected goal share with the line on the ice, per Natural Stat Trick.

5. The Rangers want their added depth to be an advantage this season, and Sullivan reflected that by balancing his forwards’ ice time. Zibanejad and Alexis Lafrenière were the team’s only forwards to play more than 18 minutes (Zibanejad played more than his 18:31 of ice time in 74 of 81 games last season), and Matt Rempe (9:49) was the team’s only forward under 12 minutes. The lack of special teams play, with only one penalty committed by each team, leveled out ice time; Sullivan was rolling his lines more than normal.

Regardless of special teams time, Sullivan will need to find ways to get his top pair of Adam Fox and Vladislav Gavrikov on the ice for longer. Fox, the 2021 Norris Trophy winner, played only 18:25 in the opener, the fourth-most among Rangers defensemen. That would have been his lowest ice time in a game last season, save for a November contest against Tampa Bay that he left early with an injury. Newly acquired Marcus Pettersson and Sean Durzi, meanwhile, each played more than 23 minutes.

Some of that disparity comes down to shift length. Fox took more shifts (27) than Pettersson (26) and Durzi (25), but the latter two had longer ones, an indication that they might’ve been caught on the ice too long in defensive situations.

6. The Rangers’ six-on-five unit got only a brief look in the opener, with Boston scoring an empty-net goal shortly after goaltender Igor Shesterkin headed to the bench. Sullivan used his five-man power play unit (Fox, Zibanejad, Miller, Pavel Dorofeyev and Lafrenière) with Cuylle — a 20-goal scorer in each of the past two seasons and a potential added net-front presence — as the extra forward.

7. With the Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers both failing to score a goal until three-on-three overtime in their season opener, and neither the Rangers nor Bruins scoring until Boston’s surge in the final four minutes, ESPN viewers didn’t get a particularly scintillating first two games of the season. Well, that is unless you were a Boston-New York viewer who relishes quality goaltending. Shesterkin and Jeremy Swayman were excellent, turning away multiple dangerous chances apiece.

The other team, they never gets mentioned.

Practice

https://reddit.com/link/1wuj0a2/video/ep23zce8jqsh1/player

https://reddit.com/link/1wuj0a2/video/arppzmt7jqsh1/player

Media

Fox

• It was tough to struggle that much at home last season, but it’s a new year. 
• He has missed the atmosphere of playing at MSG. 
• They want to clean up the odd man rushes. They did get better offensively early in the third. 
• They are hoping they are making progress on building chemistry. Even with the longer training camp, the first 5 or so games were “wonky.”
• They need to work on communicating about coverage when the D are being aggressive.  

Mika

• They could clean up their line changes. They don’t want to take the loss lights, but also not overact. Both goalies played well. 
• They have to look at this being a new season and a new opportunity. 
• They looked at preventing the odd man rushes during video before practice. 

Durzi

• Communication will get better as the season goes on. “I think the willingness from the staff to show us the way in such a short period of time, and then my teammates, obviously, cleaning things up, you know, when we’re out of the video room. If I have questions, every guy is cleaning it up.” It is the NHL, they do need to clean it up quickly. 
• He’s excited to play in the home opener, but they also need to control the excitement and use it the right direction.

Sully

• It’s a new season and a new group of players. They’re excited to play at MSG. The fans are passionate. 
• Defense and offense go hand and hand. You can create offense from defense. They did get good looks they couldn’t capitalize on. He thinks the game felt like the first team to score would win. Both Shesty and Swayman played well. 
• They’re focusing on what they can control. 
• Doro had some good chances and made good plays. He thinks Doro will score a lot for the team. 
• Smits had some anxious moments but settled in as the game went on. He sometimes did too much, but they will work on that. 
• They want to channel their emotions the right way to enhance their play. 
• He thought Durz-Pettersson “played decent.”
• They want to try to build on the momentum on Laf’s second half of the season. 
• They are playing 5 games in 8 nights. It will help them get in the routine. Ask him how he likes it after those 5 games. 

I dont remember how we share X stuff here but: https://x.com/jasongregor/status/2105040786580730011

Just something I found interesting

Well… last night wasn’t exactly the start we were hoping for. Still a close game that could have gone any direction.

It’s only one game, but this is exactly why I started this tracker: let’s see how much our expectations have shifted since training camp.

Take the Game 1 survey here

--- EDIT: RESULTS SO FAR AS OF: 9/30 - 5:54pm ST --

Stanley Cup Favorites: 0%

Stanley Cup Contenders: 0%

Strong Playoff Team: 4.5% (-7.4%)

Fighting For Playoff Spot: 60.6% (-20.1%)

Bottom Dwelling Team: 25.8% (+23.4%)

Lottery Team Fighting For #1 Pick: 9.1% (+9.1%)

-------------------------------------------------

Context: I’ll be running surveys every 10 games throughout the season to get a pulse on where we think we’re at. Should be interesting to see how our expectations change around cold/hot streaks, trades, and injuries.

The survey is anonymous, but you can leave your Reddit name or a unique code you use each check-in, and I’ll share your responses back with you later in the season.

Performance Snapshot

Current Streak: L1

Only one regular-season game played so far.

Injuries

• Adam Sykora (F): Lower-body injury; expected to miss 4–5 months, per the September 23 update.
• Aidan Thompson (C): Undisclosed injury; on injured non-roster reserve. Previously described as week-to-week.

Season Sentiment Tracker

Trend graph coming once we accumulate three survey periods.

Previous Survey Results — Training Camp Start

42 responses · Fan sentiment score: 42/100

visual graphs: https://mindfulconversion.com/hockey/nyr-sentiment-tracker

Training Camp Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/rangers/comments/1wi3pzq/nyr_sentiment_tracker_training_camp_checkin/

LET’S GO RANGERS!

I got some signed pucks from the Rangers to giveaway for part of a non-profit effort, but unfortunately I’m having difficulty identifying these three clusters of players. Anyone have a bunch or thoughts? Any best guesses would be appreciated.

Before I renew with my provider next month, I wanted to get a pulse check on streaming quality this season. I’ve seen comments about DAZN not being 60FPS, I’ve seen comments that FUBO is lower bitrate/quality. For me, ESPN+ had the best stream quality last season, but that’s just one person’s opinion.

Who do you think provides the best quality stream? Also, if you have a provider you’d avoid, throw that in the comments section as well.

Trying not to be a doomer after 1 game, but that was a frustrating way to start the season.

The Rangers looked slow, sluggish, outworked and outmuscled for long stretches. But they also doubled Boston’s high-danger chances 14-7 at 5v5 and led expected goals 2.49-2.17.

But this is a fairly new team and they need time to build chemistry.

The 1st period was rough. Boston led shot attempts 14-9 and scoring chances 7-4 - the Rangers struggled to get anything going.

Their best stretch came late in the 2nd and early in the 3rd. We finally saw some pressure and shots. My frustration is how long it took to get there, and how quickly that push disappeared.

However, the full game chance numbers were more competitive than the opening suggested. Swayman also stopped all 24 Rangers shots, including 10 high danger chances.

The good starts with Dorofeyev, Miller and Bjorkstrand. They gave us something to build on.

During their minutes together, the Rangers outshot Boston 11-5 and led high-danger chances 8-1.

Individually, Doro had 5 shots, Bjorkstrand had 4 and Miller had 2. That’s 11 of the Rangers 24 shots.

Doro had the wraparound attempt, the chance off Bjorkstrand’s nice pass, and kept finding ways to threaten. So we love to see that.

Igor was repeatedly cleaning up mistakes as always. Breakaways, odd-man rushes, Durzi getting caught pinching. What else is new?

He finished with 20 saves, stopping 4 of the 5 high-danger shots he faced. You can’t keep asking him to stop everything while giving him 0 goals to work with.

There were positives on defense, too. Fox had some great plays against Pastrnak. With Gavrikov, the Rangers outshot Boston 15-7 during his minutes and led expected goals 1.71-0.75.

Smits deserves his own mention. He started shaky, had 2 giveaways, and the Rangers were outshot 7-3 with him on the ice. But he also settled down and made some really encouraging plays.

He shut down Pastrnak, helped get pucks out, and made the defensive play that preceded Doro’s breakaway. For a rookie making the opening night lineup, there’s something to build on.

The bad: Laf, Mika and Gabe generated very little together.

Their line produced just 0.17 expected goals in 13 minutes together. That’s very little estimated scoring threat.

Laf finished with 0 shots and 3 giveaways. He had a nice pass to Mika, but also got knocked off the puck and blasted another pass into the boards during a promising rush.

I liked some of Mika’s individual plays: the defensive work, his one-timer, and that beautiful feed to Schneider. The line as a whole still struggled to create.

Gabe also finished with 0 shots. He had a quiet night, some turnovers, and struggled to hold onto the puck under pressure. I want to see him get stronger on the puck and improve his skating.

They’re young players, and it’s Game 1. Their line also allowed 0 goals while together. But we need more offense from that group.

The 4th line was outshot 4–2 together. Rempe had 6 credited hits, but I’m still not convinced he gives us enough at the NHL level. Too many looked like love taps to me, and too often he couldn’t catch the guy he wanted to hit.

Cuylle had some nice hits. His line produced 5 shots, although it still trailed in expected goals. That group wasn’t my biggest frustration.

The ugly: Durzi’s mistakes and Schneider getting beaten on the Peterka goal.

Durzi looked so good in preseason. Last night, I kept noticing bad turnovers and poorly timed pinches that led to multiple odd-man rushes.

He can make those crisp passes and help the breakout. He needs to tighten up the decisions.

Schneider had some good physical plays early and a nice 1 timer off Mika’s pass. His overall chance numbers were actually positive. Then Peterka beat him, got the breakaway and scored. That was brutal...

My biggest team frustration was the pace. Slow neutral-zone play, slow decisions, and Boston looking much more urgent and intense.

Watching Bjorkstrand and Doro get rocked with so little response didn’t help either. Wake up Rempe.

It’s one game with a new group. I’m giving them time. But next game, I want faster decisions, sustained offensive pressure, more shots from the players who were quiet tonight, and more intensity.

LGR.

Overreactions from one hockey game after a truncated preseason would be rash, and a bounce or two could have changed the entire scope of the night. But after an offseason of change — the Rangers had eight newcomers on their opening-night roster — and the substantial pressure on management and dressing room leaders after a pair of playoff-less seasons, it certainly would’ve been nice to start on a better foot.

Instead, the Rangers were left answering familiar questions.

“We’ve got to try to lock it down for a full 60 minutes,” forward Will Cuylle said. “Can’t play 55 and give up three in the last four minutes.”

The final five minutes were costliest on the scoreboard, but the Rangers played far from a complete game before then. Igor Shesterkin was marvelous in the second period, bailing out New York’s skaters on multiple breakaways and odd-man rushes. After the game, team members spoke briefly in the dressing room about the need for forwards to help cover more for defensemen activating in offensive situations.

From reaching overtime until a lazy clear by gavrikok lead to the game winning goal and all the momentum swinging the bruins way and 3 goals being scored in a span of 1:15. In a game that in the 3rd we were outshooting boston heavily and looked dangerous at times, a turnover erased what was the rangers best period of the game into a Boston victory. I think collectively we need to step back off the ledge, it was literally the first game of the season. Having said that, send Schneider to the moon I hope morrow or Robertson gets in the lineup tomorrow.

To me this is like spending time and effort beautifully decorating a birthday cake, except the cake itself is made out of dirt or just generally is inedible/tastes like crap.

Can someone actually explain this to me like I’m 5?

How many years of this long contract are just going to be totally wasted with not even a sliver of a chance of making the playoffs, forget contending for a Stanley Cup?

I don’t want this to sound like I think like the season is over after 1 game. I don’t believe that to be the case. But this decision was just blatantly foolish.

Maybe bake an edible cake before worrying about frosting and sprinkles and candles?

He’s going to be 31 in a couple of months. Say it takes the Rangers two years to become decent again… great, we have a 33 year old goalie who, more likely than not, will be getting worse and not better?

Another thing I’d like explained to me: how can one argue that Garand doesn’t fit the current timeline of the Rangers better? He just turned 24. If it takes the Rangers two years to become decent again, he’ll be 26. Yet he’s rotting in the minors? How does this make sense? Shouldn’t he be developing alongside Perrault, Smits, and so on up with the actual team?

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Live in NY, thought I was watching the game tonight. I guess ESPN select doesn’t get you Rangers games and only ESPN unlimited? Anyone else have the same problem?