3 Overreactions to the Rangers’ First Game of the Season

The bottom six are also not set up to be an offensive threat. The third line consisted of Connor Sheary, Noah Laba, and Taylor Raddysh, while the fourth line included Adam Edstrom, Sam Carrick, and Matt Rempe. None of them are goal-scorers, and their main role is to be defensively responsible.

So, with the top six looking as bad as it did in game one, the team should not count on the bottom six to pick up the slack because that is not their role. The Rangers have players in the minors, like Brett Berard, Gabe Perreault, and Brennan Othmann, who are offensively gifted and could add some firepower to the lineup, but for now, the Rangers need their top six to play better.

Rangers Defense is Still a Major Concern

An even bigger issue is that the team’s defense was atrocious on Tuesday. None of their six defensemen looked good, often leaving the front of the net open and hanging goaltender Igor Shesterkin out to dry, facing high-danger chances.

Adam Fox, who is looking to have a bounce-back season, had a few turnovers that led to chances for the Penguins. His new partner, Vladislav Gavrikov, also had a poor debut, with turnovers and overall disappointing play. This is supposed to be the Rangers’ top pairing, and if they continue to play this poorly, it will become a major problem as the season goes on, since the rest of the blue line players are below-average defenders at best.

The second pairing consists of Carson Soucy and Will Borgen, while the third pair is Urho Vaakanainen and Braden Schneider. These four are primarily defensive defensemen, but, like last season, they don’t play the role well. Both Vaakanainen and Schneider left the front of the net wide open on the Penguins’ first goal.

These players cannot make a good first pass out of the zone, and they are below-average skaters and puck movers. Those are not the kind of defensemen that will win you a Stanley Cup, and as long as any combination of these four players is in the lineup, the defense will continue to be a major concern for the team.

Rangers’ Power-Play Struggles Continue

Two seasons ago, the Rangers had the third-best power-play in the league. Last season, even with the addition of Miller halfway through the campaign and with many returning players, the power play dropped to 28th in the league. For a team that relies on its goaltending and special teams, this was one of the main reasons the Rangers missed the playoffs in 2024-25.

In the first game of 2025-26, the power play looked just as bad as it did last season. The top unit, which consists of Miller, Zibanejad, Panarin, Trocheck, and Fox, failed to set up, and when they did, they took weak shots that the goalie could see clearly.

One big change is that Chris Kreider, a mainstay on the power play for years, is no longer with the Rangers, so they no longer have that net-front presence on the top unit. It will be an adjustment, but these players have played together for so long, and they have the talent to make it work; they just have to do it now because if the first power-play unit struggles, the second unit cannot pick up the slack. The top players need to start playing like top players, and when they do, the power play should again be one of the best in the league.

This was as poor a start to the season as we could have expected from a team trying to get back to the playoffs. The Rangers looked lifeless for most of the game and were outplayed by a less talented Penguins team, but the Penguins wanted it more, and they got the win. This is only game one, but some of these problems have been around for years. If they continue to play like this, the Rangers’ 100th season could be one of their worst.