The Rangers defensive struggles continued on opening night

In what was a disappointing result to start the new campaign, the team in Manhattan is facing similar issues that plagued them last year.

The New York Rangers opened up their centennial season on Tuesday night against the rebuilding Pittsburgh Penguins. Despite seemingly coming in as a favorite to start 1-0, the Rangers fell flat, falling to Arturs Silovs and company by a score of 3-0.

Along with not being able to put a notch up on the scoreboard, the Rangers showed signs that the defensive structure that hindered them throughout the 2024-25 season persisted, leading to many great scoring chances on goaltender Igor Shesterkin. While it’s still early in the new campaign, a lot of things look the same for New York, despite having a new coach behind the bench.

On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Steve Peters joined Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton to discuss what was wrong with the Blueshirts in game one of the season.

Steve Peters: I was disappointed in the Rangers in that I’m a huge Mike Sullivan supporter. I’m a big fan of the way he coaches. He’s accountable, structured…plays the right way. One of the problems with the New York Rangers a season ago was their inability to protect the net front in front of Shesterkin. They gave up way too many chances around the blue paint, second opportunities, tip-screens. I expected that to be one of the strengths of this Rangers team this season. Now it’s one game, but in that one game, they really struggled to keep the Pittsburgh Penguins from getting to the inside.

The amount of times [Justin] Brazeau had opportunities near and around the blue paint was just surprising. Even the goal that you see Brazeau getting that close to the net without being defended. I was disappointed at how poorly the Rangers defended. I think it’s going to take time for them to find their offensive stride…but defensively, this team’s going to have to tighten up. They’re going to have to defend better. They’re going from a man-on-man system a year ago, and now they’re trying to defend in more of a zone structure. So, you’re expecting a defenseman in front of the net more often. Hard to change those habits. It’s hard to make that change in one game. They’ll grow defensively, but that was the biggest disappointment for me in game one.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…