The New York Rangers continued their road dominance, notching a 2-1 shootout win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. With the victory, New York improved to 9-1-1 away from MSG. In Sunday news, Gabe Perreault was sent back to the AHL with Scott Morrow. Additionally, the Blueshirts take on the Red Wings.
Game recap:
Lines against Columbus:
Perreault – Zibanejad – Miller
Panarin – Trocheck – Lafrenière
Cuylle – Laba – Sheary
Edström – Carrick – Raddysh
Gavrikov – Fox
Soucy – Schneider
Vaakanainen – Robertson
Shesterkin
Quick
A few thoughts:
1) Solid defense and goaltending: following a contest versus Tampa where the game was firewagon hockey in the first period, New York clamped down yesterday. Defeating Columbus, or at least blunting their attack, requires keeping the Blue Jackets out of the middle of the ice, good support in the neutral zone and the ability to break the puck out of your own zone. All three were on display Saturday even with Will Borgen missing the game with an upper-body injury, snapping his consecutive game streak at 285 contests. Matthew Robertson ably stepped in for Borgen with Braden Schneider moved up to the second pair.
Igor Shesterkin allowed just one goal on 25 shots. Included in those stops was a penalty shot by Miles Wood turned away by Igor. He surrendered just one tally in three shootout attempts in picking up the victory. Igor is now 7-6-2 with a 2.39 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage in 15 appearances this year.
2) Mika Zibanejad: Zib notched the sole goal scored in the game with the tally coming on the power play. New York now has four PP goals in its last five games after scoring the same number in its first 14, with the recent uptick coming in the aftermath of moving Will Cuylle to the net-front position on the top unit. While Zib scored the goal, watch the game recap with the MSG Network show above, as the marker was all Adam Fox. Four times he kept the puck in the zone, the last leading to Artemi Panarin’s pass and second shot goal by Zibanejad.
The point gave Zibanejad 600 for his Rangers’ career and 751 overall between Ottawa and New York. Former GM Jeff Gorton stole Zib and a second round pick from the Senators on July 18, 2018 for Derick Brassard. Zibanejad, with the point, became the eighth Ranger to score 600 with the franchise. The power play tally was the 111th of his career, leaving him five behind Camille Henry and Chris Kreider on the organizational list.
3) Sam Carrick: when Carrick was inked to a three-year, $3 million deal on July 1, 2024, most, if not all, questioned the signing. Fast forward to November 16, 2025 and we all owe GM Chris Drury some props as the signing has proven to be a master stroke. Carrick’s play on the fourth line should not be discounted, as he provided New York all they could want and more.
In addition, he has accepted the role as “enforcer” with Matt Rempe sidelined. Yesterday, he went toe-to-toe with Mathieu Olivier, who defeated Rempe in a fight last season, Olivier dished out two hard checks to Matthew Robertson and Braden Schneider, both of which were borderline, necessitating a response. Carrick picked up the mantle, earning the respect of everyone in the Rangers’ locker room.
4) Perreault sent down and Morrow promoted: these moves are not really surprising. With Borgen possibly out Sunday as well, New York wanted a backup blueliner and Morrow could replace Robertson in the lineup tonight. Perreault, with the comments from coach Mike Sullivan before the game Saturday very telling, did not set the world afire in his three games with the parent club. He started on the top line again versus Columbus, but rarely had the puck and failed to register a shot attempt. He was demoted to the bottom six toward the end of the second period in each of the last two games, finishing with 12:37 time on ice Saturday.
What Perreault needs to work on is fairly apparent, speed and strength. The latter he worked on this summer, getting a bit stronger, but more is needed. Similarly for his lack of speed, which was a concern when drafted and despite some improvements, is far from a strong point in his game. With Perreault down, either Will Cuylle or Conor Sheary will move up to the top-six to start the game.
“We’ve seen some really good things he’s done,” Sullivan said. “Obviously he’s got real good offensive instincts, sees the play really well. He thinks the game on a high level. I think where his opportunity for growth and improvement is really just strength on the puck and a little bit of quickness. And I think they go hand in hand. As a young player, it’s just physical maturity. The speed of the game and the size and the strength of the players at this level is second to none. For most young players, that’s one of the challenges in making the jump to being an impact player at this level.”
