How Playing At Madison Square Garden Turned Into The Rangers' Biggest Nightmare Until It Wasn't
Dennis Schneidler-Imagn Images The New York Rangers ended their home campaign at Madison Square Garden with a 4-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night. With the Rangers playing their last home game of the 2025-26 season, let's take a deep dive into the team’s play at the world’s most famous arena over the course of the year. The season opened up at Madison Square Garden on Oct.
7 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Going into that matchup, there was a lot of excitement, yet uncertainty as the Mike Sullivan era was set to begin. Against Sullivan’s former team in front of a full house at MSG, the Rangers were outplayed and lost 3-0 in what would ultimately be a sign of things to come.
The Blueshirts failed to score a goal over their first three home games, marking the second-longest scoring drought to start a season at home. They also lost their first seven games at home before finally recording their first win on Broadway against the Nashville Predators on Nov. 10.
During this tumultuous stretch, the Rangers became the first NHL team in 98 years to be shut out in five of their first seven home games. Through the first handful of games, despite struggling to score goals, the Rangers were putting up shots and generating offense at a high rate. It was constantly preached by both Sullivan and veteran leaders in the locker room that they were playing the right way and would eventually be rewarded.
“'I’ll go back to when you look at the first 20 games of the season, there were a lot of games that we felt pretty good about our overall game from a process standpoint, and we struggled to score goals for whatever reason in particular, at home,” Sullivan said. “We were creating offense. We just weren't scoring.
Continue to the original source for the full article.