It took a while for him to arrive, but Dylan Garand finally made his NHL debut for the Rangers on Sunday afternoon. The 2020 fourth round pick had a grand entrance at Madison Square Garden in a tough 3-2 shootout loss to the Jets.

After spending four years fine-tuning his game with the Hartford Wolf Pack in the American Hockey League, the 23-year-old Garand introduced himself to fans at the World’s Most Famous Arena on Kids Day. Although he came up a little short of picking a win in his first game, he impressed by making 35 saves against a desperate opponent. As bad as their season has been, the Jets are still alive for the second wild card in the Western Conference.

Ironically, only four points separated the Rangers from Winnipeg entering today’s match. The absurd aspect is that while the Jets are still competing for the playoffs, the Rangers remain out of it in a much stronger Eastern Conference. Instead, it’s mostly about where they wind up in the standings at the conclusion of the regular season. They came in ranked 29th out of 32 in the NHL Lottery race for prized prospects Gavin McKenna and Ivar Stenberg. By virtue of a point, they’re up to 65 to put them one ahead of the Blackhawks, who are currently taking on the Predators.

In their 70th game of another disappointing season, the Rangers were mostly outplayed by the more desperate Jets. A bad start saw them fall behind 1-0 and outshot 11-4 in a lackluster opening period.

Adam Lowry put away a feed from Gabe Vilardi at 13:06 to put the Jets ahead. It was a defensive breakdown for the Blueshirts due to Adam Fox and J.T. Miller both going to Cole Perfetti. That left only Vladislav Gavrikov back to defend, allowing Vilardi to slide a pass across to Lowry for an easy finish.

Following the dismal start, the Rangers picked it up with a more inspired second period. In fact, they held a 16-14 edge in shots and outscored the Jets 2-1 in a more entertaining stanza.

Tye Kartye drew them even thanks to some hard work from his line. After having his first shot broken up, Miller stuck with it to get the puck to an open Kartye in front for his sixth. Since joining the Blueshirts, Kartye has been one of their best forwards. A very active player who comes back defensively and is noticeable on the forecheck, Kartye has three goals and five assists for eight points in 12 games. He’s been a good fit on the third line, where he had solid chemistry with rookie Noah Laba, who sat out a second straight game due to an injury. Miller remained the center on the line with Kartye and Conor Sheary.

The Jets went back ahead thanks to a power-play goal from Vilardi. With Taylor Raddysh off for slashing, Kyle Connor set up Vilardi for a one-timer that beat Garand to make it 2-1. Garand made several big saves on Winnipeg chances in transition to keep the Rangers within one. That included denying a Connor shorthanded bid.

Mika Zibanejad was able to reach the 30-goal mark for the fourth time in his career. Playing in his 999th NHL game, Zibanejad buried a Fox pass in the left circle for the game-tying power-play goal. It was his team-leading 14th goal on the man-advantage this season. He leads the Rangers in scoring with 30 goals and 67 points in 69 games, getting back to nearly a point-per-game clip.

In a third period that favored the Jets, the Rangers killed off a Matthew Robertson high-sticking minor to remain tied. Garand made 11 saves to take it to overtime.

Gavrikov drew a weak interference minor on Mark Scheifele to put the Rangers on a 4-on-3 man-advantage. Mike Sullivan opted to go with Fox, Zibanejad, Miller, and Vincent Trocheck for the full two minutes. They were never able to get much done. Fox was too passive on the point, choosing to force passes, including one for a bad angle Trocheck shot that Jets backup Eric Comrie handled.

It wasn’t much of a power play. When he attempted a shot towards the end, Fox missed the net. As good as he is at keeping pucks in and setting up teammates, he remains a frustrating number one defenseman due to his weak shot. For an elite player, it’s puzzling that Fox isn’t better at shooting the puck. It was only two years ago that he set a career-high by scoring 17 goals. It’s doubtful that he’ll ever get close to that number again.

With 11 seconds remaining in overtime, Alexis Lafreniere took a needless hooking minor on Scheifele. The Jets weren’t able to cash in to send it to a shootout.

That was no contest. After Trocheck missed on a backhand, Connor beat Garand through the five-hole. Then, Miller had a really predictable attempt that Comrie stopped. The Jets went with Vilardi, who was able to sneak a shot just under Garand’s glove to clinch the victory.

The biggest takeaway is that Garand played well. He’s been patiently waiting for his opportunity. With Jonathan Quick banged up, he should get some more starts down the stretch.

If there’s a disappointment, Sullivan hardly used the fourth line. Adam Edstrom had only 7:12 of ice time and Jaroslav Chmelar received just 6:03. Jonny Brodzinski logged 6:04. It wasn’t like there was a lot of special teams. At this juncture, both Edstrom and Chmelar should be taking regular shifts.

Fortescue Set to Debut This Week

The Connor Mackey experiment is coming to an end. The recent signing of 2023 third round pick Drew Fortescue to an entry-level contract means that the Boston College product will make his Rangers debut this week. If not tomorrow against the Senators in Monday’s only NHL game, then probably by Wednesday against the Maple Leafs.

Fortescue is a left defenseman who just wrapped up his junior year for BC. He had four goals and 10 helpers for 14 points this year. He was part of the 2025 gold medal for Team USA at the World Junior Championships.