An Unwanted Record

It takes talent to score goals in the NHL, and the New York Rangers felt that they were ready to score a lot of goals this season as they entered the season. JT Miller was named captain and brought a work ethic others wanted to emulate, Vincent Trocheck was rested and ready, Artemi Panarin had a summer to prepare, and Mika Zibanejad was recharged after a long summer. Mike Sullivan was hired as head coach after a long and successful run with the Pittsburgh Penguins, they still have a world-class goalie, and their revamped defence looked like to was ready to take steps forward. And then the season started and the Rangers unexpectedly went and made history on home ice tonight.

The New York Rangers are the first team in modern NHL history to be shutout in their first three home games to start a season after dropping the home opener 3-0 to the Penguins, a second game by a 1-0 score to the Washington Capitals, and a 2-0 defeat at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers tonight. It seems inexplicable that the Rangers could do that with the talent on their roster, but they broke the home scoreless record of 1:55:17 set by the 2021-22 Florida Panthers, and they are 7:19 from breaking the all-time NHL record held by the 1928-29 Pitssburgh Pirates who played 1:87:19 at home before scoring. I'm sure the Rangers will be extremely focused on October 20 when they host the Minnesota Wild at Madison Square Garden.

"First of all, let's not make this bigger than it is," Miller said to reporters, downplaying the unwanted record. "It's game five. There is a lot to like about our game. It's a unique situation."

Miller not wrong in that it's a unique situation because no one else has done it in modern NHL history. What's weird, however, is that the Rangers have two road wins this season by 4-0 and 6-1 scores, so it's not like they're having problems finding twine when they're away from Manhatten. For whatever reason, though, the puck simply won't go in the net when the Rangers are skating on MSG ice this season.

The Rangers have put 25, 35, and 30 shots on net that Artūrs Šilovs, Charlie Lindgren, and Stuart Skinner have stopped, and it might be more surprising that these three goalies recorded shutouts against the Rangers considering their bodies of work. That being said, putting 90 shots on net means the Rangers are getting chances.

"I think we're creating a lot of chances, but we're not scoring. Simple," Zibanejad said after the loss to Edmonton. "Obviously, we need to bear down and score on the chances we get, but it would be a different thing if we weren't creating chances and we were giving up chance after chance. It's frustrating but we have to stick with it."

The Rangers will get a chance to regroup as they head out on the road against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday and Montreal Canadiens on Saturday. As stated above, scoring on the road hasn't been a problem, so the Rangers will look to get above .500 by the time they return to Madison Square Garden on Monday for that date with the Wild. For the record, it isn't often that you see a goalie with a 2-2-0 record when he has a 0.76 GAA and a .976 save percentage, but Igor Shesterkin desperately needs some run support at home!

Head coach Mike Sullivan believes that this home scoring drought will end soon, stating, "If we weren't generating scoring chances it would be a different conversation, but we believe, based on everything that we're watching and tracking, we believe that it's not sustainable that the puck's not going to go into the net if we continue to generate the types of looks that we generated."

It seems rather impossible that the Rangers would be shutout for a fourth-straight game next Monday, but we'll see what happens. Filip Gustavsson hasn't exactly lit the world on fire with his goaltending so far, so the Rangers could finally light the lamp at home next week. In saying that, they'll want to get that task completed before the game hits the 7:19 mark of the first period so they don't bump the Pittsburgh Pirates to second-place on that home scoreless streak to start a season. Their record is one that no one would ever want!

Keep an eye on the Rangers next Monday. We might be talking about a new NHL record when it comes to scoring futility at home!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

***UPDATE: Thanks to reader Kevin R. who alerted me that it was the Pirates, not the Quakers, who set the record in 1928.***