Last night, the Rangers suffered a crushing 5-4 loss to the Maple Leafs up at Scotiabank Centre. They were 27 seconds away from forcing overtime before unheralded Toronto defenseman Troy Stecher scored the game-winner to deny them of getting even a point.

To say it was disapponting would be an understatement. It’s the fourth consecutive loss on the road, which so far hasn’t been kind to them. Unlike the previous season, when they managed to do their best work away from Madison Square Garden by posting a 20-19-2 record, the Rangers are a dismal 1-4-1, having been outscored 19-8. It’s becoming an alarming trend with their next game at the Senators tomorrow night.

Despite falling behind early on a wide open Easton Cowan breakaway goal due to a bad line change less than two minutes in, the Rangers fought back thanks to Mika Zibanejad deflecting in a Vladislav Gavrikov shot to tie the score. It was his first goal at 5-on-5 this season. Adam Fox helped set it up with a secondary assist. He had a big night finishing with four helpers to continue his torrid start. He leads all NHL defensemen with 14 assists and trails only Evan Bouchard in points amongst top blue liners.

The Rangers were sloppy throughout the contest due to the Leafs pushing the pace. Even their fourth line did some damage by taking advantage of poor coverage to score twice. That included Teddy Blueger putting in a rebound of a Brandon Duhaime shot past Dylan Garand, who didn’t have his best game.

He didn’t get much help from his defense with Albert Smits and Braden Schneider having a rough night. Twice, Schneider was beaten for goals against due to being in the wrong position. Playing in his 12th game, Smits was an adventure defensively against the very skilled Leafs. On one sequence, he took the wrong angle on William Nylander at his own blue line, which allowed Nylander to slip past him for a breakaway that he missed. It was a lesson learned for the neophyte.

Despite continuing to put themselves in trouble, the Rangers kept battling back. Some hustle from Justin Dowling led to Oliver Bjorkstrand scoring for the third time in two games. For a journeyman, Dowling plays with a lot of determination and grit. He outmuscled a Leaf to get in and force a rebound on Sergei Bobrovsky that Bjorkstrand stuffed home for his fifth. It was a great effort from Dowling, who was effective in nine shifts (6:56) at even strength.

Pavel Dorofeyev had a second straight strong game even though he didn’t score a goal. He was on the puck a lot and made things happen. That included a smart defensive play in his zone that led directly to a 2-on-1 with Tye Kartye able to put away a Fox rebound for the Rangers’ first lead.

Unfortunately, Dorofeyev again hit a goalpost on a steal and high-danger scoring chance. So far, he’s hit four goalposts and missed on several point blank opportunities. He’s getting closer to breaking out.

A Marcus Pettersson neutral zone turnover allowed the Leafs to quickly counter for the tying goal. Normally, he makes smart decisions with the puck. However, his pass was intercepted by Blueger, who sent Zack MacEwen in for a routine shot that Garand mishandled. That allowed Duhaime to pounce on the juicy rebound that tied the game.

The refs let both teams play by only calling three penalties. Unfortunately, Alexis Lafreniere took the first one when he got caught chasing and had to hook Jack Roslovic from behind late in the second period. The end result was the dangerous Leafs converting on their first power play when Kirill Marchenko was left wide open in the slot for a shot that Garand got his glove on. However, he fumbled the puck which allowed Marchenko to hustle in and put in the rebound for a 4-3 Toronto lead.

Rebounds were an issue for Garand in this game. He had trouble with the Leafs going high on him. Despite having a great glove that later denied a bid from Auston Matthews, he needs to work on controlling rebounds. Perhaps due to the skill and speed of the opponent, it affected his game. Combined with the lack of structure from his team, it resulted in him allowing five goals on 35 shots.

Rangers bench boss Mike Sullivan has ridden Garand since Igor Shesterkin went down to a right knee injury for the regular season. It was his sixth consecutive start. As well as he’s played, it’s an awful lot on the 24-year-old rookie to be asked to carry the workload. Perhaps it could be time to give him a breather and go with Spencer Martin this weekend. While that might sound crazy, the team has usually responded well to playing in front of a backup after a tough loss. We’ll see what Sullivan decides to do.

With the Rangers still trailing the Leafs in the third period, a set faceoff play led to Lafreniere tying the game with his team-leading eighth on a blast inside the blue line with 5:35 remaining. Zibanejad won the offensive draw back to Fox who got the puck over for a Lafreniere shot through traffic that Bobrovsky didn’t track well enough. It was his first goal in four games. He continues to lead the Rangers in scoring with 14 points in the first dozen.

On another shift, Lafreniere was dangerous in the offensive zone. He nearly created another goal with the game tied. On a night when he was fairly quiet for two periods, except for the costly minor that led to a Marchenko power-play goal, the former 2020 top pick continues to grow into a more complete player under Sullivan. He’s now an established first line scorer who plays on the number one power play unit. A gigantic step for the 25-year-old who’s now in his seventh season.

Ultimately, it wasn’t enough for the Rangers to get a win. A neutral zone turnover allowed Nick Paul to come back into the zone and outhustle Schneider to push the puck around the net for Duhaime. He then was taken down by Kartye, who gave up on the play that led to Morgan Rielly finding an uncovered Stecher for a great shot that beat Garand top shelf for the deciding goal at 19:32.

Despite continuing to battle hard, the Rangers’ lack of focus cost them. Sullivan referred to the defensive issues following the game.

“There wasn’t a lot [defensively],” head coach Sullivan said. “I just didn’t think we managed the puck. I didn’t think we played with structure. We chased it, you know? We chased the game. It wasn’t a collective effort. You got to know your job, do your job, trust your linemates are going to do theirs. I just thought the types of chances we gave up tonight is uncharacteristic of this group.”

Fox basically admitted that they got into the wrong kind of game against the Leafs. Even on a relatively quiet night when their stars were held in check, it didn’t matter. 2026 number one overall pick Gavin McKenna was a nonfactor at 5-on-5, but he picked up an assist on the Marchenko goal on the power play.

“We were definitely giving them a lot of chances and a lot of Grade-A’s too,” Fox told reporters after setting up all four Ranger goals. “[Garand] had to make some big saves there as well. They got a lot of fire power, so you’re giving guys dangerous chances that I don’t know if that’s the recipe for our team to win games. Can we? Yeah, but just felt like we kind of played it to how they wanted to play tonight.”

Schneider A Net Negative

Overall, the Rangers’ defensemen struggled mightily. With the lone exception of Fox and Gavrikov, who both were on the ice for their four goals, the rest of the blue line had a night to forget about.

It even affected the normally dependable Pettersson, whose costly giveaway led to the Leafs’ fourth goal late in the second period. On a night partner Sean Durzi turned 28, they had a tough game with each on for two goals against. But like Sullivan recently said in response to the metric nonsense about how high the expected goals against are for the second pair, they get important minutes and usually limit most chances to the outside. They’ll look to bounce back on Saturday.

In particular, it was a rough night for Schneider. After both he and Smits were beaten for a Blueger goal that made it 2-1, the six-year veteran was trusted by Sullivan to get the Rangers to overtime in the final minute.

Following a misplay in the neutral zone that allowed the Leafs to gain reentry, Schneider lost a board battle with Paul. He took a poor angle on the former Lightning center, who was able to hang onto the puck and get past him to help create the game-winner that Stecher scored.

Once Schneider lost that battle, it put a tired Rangers five-man unit in a bad spot. The Leafs had been pressing hard for the last two minutes, but Garand denied them of going ahead. He more than did his part to try to get a point. He desperately needed some help from his teammates, who never got the puck past center ice. That more than anything is what led to the coup de grace.

With Kartye taking a delayed penalty on Duhaime, who outhustled him, the Rangers got caught overloading the left side. That allowed the Leafs with an extra man to find Stecher for a great shot past Garand that won the game.

In that situation, you can ill afford to lose the battle. On that play, both Schneider and Kartye did. It probably wasn’t the wisest idea to have their slowest defenseman out late against a quicker opponent. Sullivan went with Schneider and Gavrikov probably due to how Pettersson and Durzi played. It didn’t work out well for the Rangers.

Rangers Pay Tribute to Duguay

Before and during the game, the Rangers paid tribute to Ron Duguay, who passed away yesterday due to colon cancer.

In a well produced video narrated by MSG reporter John Giannone, they showed highlights of his career that included over seven years spent in Manhattan. In a piece I wrote yesterday on Duguay’s 12-year NHL career, I misspoke when I said that his first season with a point-per-game came with the Red Wings in 1983-84.

It was during 1981-82 that he went over a point-per-game as a Blueshirt by having 40 goals with 36 assists for 76 points in 72 games to become an NHL All-Star. For his Rangers career, which included a brief return from 1986-87 to 1987-88, Duguay finished with 164 goals and 176 assists for 340 points in 399 games.

Prior to that return, he totaled 311 points (151-160-311) in his first stint from 1977-78 until 1982-83. Had he been better received by Herb Brooks, who didn’t like how much time he spent at Studio 54, it says here that the Rangers wouldn’t have traded Duguay to the Red Wings for a return that brought back Willie Huber, Mark Osborne, and Mike Blaisdell on June 13, 1983. The Rangers also sent Eddie Mio and Eddie Johstone to Detroit in the six-player deal.

Plenty of tributes have poured in from former players on how close they were to Duguay, who was well liked by his peers with former Devil Ken Daneyko among them.

Duguay and Daneyko in studio during Hockey Night Live was always a bundle of laughs for fans to watch.

Sullivan and Duguay played together on the San Diego Gulls in 1990-91. Duguay had 39 points in 51 games at 33. Sullivan put up 35 in 74 contests two seasons before playing for the NHL expansion San Jose Sharks in 1991-92.