After dropping the first two games of this four-game Eastern Conference road trip in Buffalo and New Jersey, the Edmonton Oilers bounced back with an overtime win against the New York Islanders on Friday. They’ll look to finish the trip with two wins and two losses when they face the New York Rangers on Sunday.
1. The Rangers are back in a playoff spot following a 4-0 road win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday. New York’s 33-28-6 record is good for fourth in the Metropolitan Division and the second Wild Card spot.
There are six teams within six points of the Rangers for the last playoff position in the Eastern Conference. The Montreal Canadiens are one point back, the Blue Jackets are two points back, the Detroit Red Wings and Boston Bruins are four points back, and the Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins are six points back. All of those teams other than Boston and Pittsburgh have at least one game in hand on New York.
2. The Oilers beat the Rangers by a score of 6-2 when the teams met for the first time this season back in November. That victory over New York started a three-game winning streak for the Oilers and a stretch that saw them win 11 of 13 games going into the Christmas break.
The Rangers were going in the opposite direction at that time. Their loss in Edmonton was the second of what wound up being a five-game losing streak. Between the middle of November and the Christmas break, New York won only four of 17 games and fell out of a playoff spot.
3. The Rangers are a different team now than when they played Edmonton in November. Six players who suited up for that loss against the Oilers were moved ahead of the March 7 trade deadline.
Captain Jacob Trouba waived his no-movement clause and accepted a trade to the Anaheim Ducks in early December with Urho Vaakanainen going to the Rangers. Winger Kaapo Kakko was dealt to the Seattle Kraken a couple of weeks later in exchange for defenceman William Borgen.
Out of a playoff spot in late January, the Rangers linked up with the Vancouver Canucks on a huge deal landed J.T. Miller in New York in exchange for Filip Chytl, Victor Mancini, and a first-round pick.
The team swung a few more deals in March before the deadline. They traded Ryan Lindgren and Jimmy Vesey to the Colorado Avalanche, Reilly Smith to the Vegas Golden Knights, and they added Carson Soucy from the Canucks and Nicolas Aube-Kubel from the Buffalo Sabres.
4. The biggest addition the Rangers made was Miller from Vancouver. The heart-and-soul, two-way pivot has made a significant impact with seven goals and 18 points in 17 games along with a 61.7 faceoff percentage for New York since the trade.
Having Miller as one of the team’s top two centres has allowed the Rangers to move Mika Zibanejad over to the wing and he’s turned around what had been a disastrous season. Over Zibanejad’s first 50 games in 2024-25, he scored nine goals and 29 points and had a minus-25 rating. In 17 games since the Miller trade, Zibanejad has six goals and 20 points along with a plus-six rating.
New York’s record was 24-22-4 when they acquired Miller from the Canucks and they’ve gone 9-6-2 since.
5. Leading the way offensively for the Rangers this season is again Artemi Panarin, who has 29 goals and 71 points through 65 games. Zibanejad and defenceman Adam Fox are tied for second in team scoring with 49 points and Vincent Trochek has 20 goals and 45 points. Wingers Chris Kreider, Will Cuylle, Alexis Lafreniere are closing in on the 20-goal mark with 18, 17, and 15 goals respectively.
6. Goaltender Igor Shesterkin signed an eight-year, $92 million contract extension in December, ending any worry that the team’s star goaltender would leave in free agency. The former Vezina Trophy winner has a .907 save percentage over 49 games this season, which is the lowest mark of his career. Coming into 2024-25, Shesterkin had a .921 save percentage in 213 NHL games.
