The numbers paint one image. They depict the Rangers as considered one of two groups — together with the Kings — to not win a recreation on residence ice this season. They illustrate that the Blueshirts have been outscored on the Backyard 15-6 and went greater than 180 minutes and not using a aim to open the season.
However within the eyes of J.T. Miller, the pattern measurement stays small.
The Blueshirts have performed simply 5 of their 41 residence video games this yr and maintain simply an 0-4-1 mark.
The sixth match will unfold Tuesday night time after they host the Hurricanes, look to win their fourth consecutive recreation and carry over the strides from the current West Coast journey the place, for the primary time this season, sturdy play blended with earned factors constantly. When the Rangers dropped back-to-back residence video games earlier than leaving for Calgary, head coach Mike Sullivan mentioned they “began to lose our swagger,” and he thought they rediscovered it with the trio of wins.
The subsequent step from the Blueshirts entails transferring that manufacturing again to a 60-minute window on the Backyard. They’ve already orchestrated a profitable streak. Their offense has began to attain extra. And when requested if the Rangers lastly securing that elusive first residence win of the season would carry a weight off their shoulders, Mika Zibanejad jokingly answered, “Yeah, I suppose I don’t need to reply any questions on it.”
“You wish to win at residence,” Zibanejad mentioned Monday after the Rangers practiced Monday. “You wish to just remember to create a sense at residence the place it’s a tricky — ought to be a tricky constructing to come back in and play in opposition to us.”
As lately as 2023-24, the Blueshirts possessed the second-best residence report within the league, based on Stat Muse. There was tangible proof of the Backyard offering a bonus. They went 30-11-0 that yr on residence ice, gathering 60 factors and anchoring what ended as a Presidents’ Trophy-winning season.
However this yr, outdoors of some extent in opposition to the Sharks, the Rangers have been silenced in residence video games. They didn’t accumulate their first residence aim till their fourth recreation, although they’ve recorded 55 high-danger probabilities in comparison with permitting simply 36 for his or her 5 opponents, based on Pure Stat Trick.
However Sullivan mentioned the Rangers aren’t making an attempt to play a sure model at residence after which a distinct model on the street. Miller mentioned they’re not serious about that, both. The outcomes simply haven’t adopted on the Backyard but.
“Is there a human ingredient related to enjoying at residence versus enjoying on the street? There may very well be just a little little bit of that,” Sullivan mentioned. “I feel a very powerful factor is simply understanding what profitable hockey appears like for this group, and I feel that street journey offered loads of proof to counsel that should you play the sport a sure manner, we’re gonna set ourselves up for achievement.”
A part of that revolves round a quick begin, Miller and Zibanejad mentioned. The 5-1 loss to the Flames final week offered a “little kick within the ass” initially of the street journey, Miller mentioned, and after they left Calgary, higher begins turned their focus.
The Blueshirts scored first in every of their subsequent three video games and ended up gathering all six attainable factors. After they begin properly, Miller mentioned, they have an inclination to play properly, and so they’ve solely scored first in a single residence recreation.
An early lead in opposition to the Hurricanes — a Metropolitan Division measuring stick, with high two finishes in every of the previous 4 seasons — would stop any lingering reminders of the early season residence drought materializing. It might energize the Backyard crowd. It might create momentum that has been lacking. It might enable the Blueshirts to keep away from urgent once more, too.
And it might enable their endurance, their belief of their model, their perception — one reiterated time and again as the house losses stacked collectively — that sooner or later the outcomes would flip, to come across some validation.
“On the finish of the season, whenever you look again and it’s a very unhealthy residence report, then perhaps we are able to look into that,” Miller mentioned. “However I nonetheless suppose it’s early on. Positively had some performances we have to take extra satisfaction in, within the sense of our constructing and making it more durable on opponents coming in, little question.
“Nevertheless it’s a reasonably small pattern measurement up to now to get labored up about.”
