NY Rangers Have Clear Area to Address Following Loss to NY Islanders

What area do the New York Rangers need to address following their loss to the New York Islanders?

Sep 22, 2026; New York, New York, USA; New York Islanders center Calum Ritchie (64) and New York Rangers center Mika Zibanejad (93) battle for control of the puck in the third period at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The New York Rangers suffered their second loss of the preseason against the New York Islanders, and it was pretty clear what hurt them on Tuesday night. 

After getting off to a fantastic start to the game, the Rangers fell apart late. With a majority of the regulars on the ice for both teams, this game had a competitive feel and even got a bit chippy with some fights and altercations. 

For New York, they couldn’t have gotten off to a better start in this one. The Rangers scored three straight goals to start the game, and it appeared as if they were going to cruise to a victory. 

New York started off with Cole Beaudoin scoring his first goal of the preseason. As the big piece in the Vincent Trocheck deal and the best center prospect the team has, that was very encouraging to see. 

Furthermore, the second goal came on a shot that was ripped by Pavel Dorofeyev. As a big addition for the team this summer, seeing Dorofeyev find the back of the net in his first preseason game was great to see as well. 

On the third goal, it was a beautiful pass by Alberts Smits that found the stick of Taylor Raddysh, who was able to punch it home. Overall, things looked good, but then the penalties started to add up, and the Rangers didn’t have much of an answer for the Islanders’ power play. 

Rangers Must Work on Penalty Kill 

Sep 22, 2026; New York, New York, USA; New York Islanders center Brayden Schenn (10) chases after the puck in the second period against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

With New York allowing three power play goals to the Islanders, this will clearly be an area that the team is going to work on. Staying out of the penalty box is certainly going to be an area that the team will fix, as some of the penalties they committed could have been easily avoided. 

Furthermore, of the three power play goals, two of them did come against Spencer Martin. Igor Shesterkin looked pretty good in this one and made a lot of nice glove saves throughout the night. However, Martin came in to start the third period, and he struggled. 

With two more preseason games to go and a few more days of training camp, it would behoove Mike Sullivan to put a little bit of a focus on this area. Come the regular season, allowing three power play goals in a game isn’t going to result in a lot of wins, and it didn’t on Tuesday night.