Rangers stun conference-leading Hurricanes in much needed road win
NY Post
RALEIGH, N.C. — For Thanksgiving, the Rangers should be grateful they are just over .500.
A 4-2 win over the Eastern Conference-leading Hurricanes on Wednesday night tipped the Blueshirts that way just in time for the Nov. 27 benchmark, giving the team a middling 12-11-2 record with roughly 30 percent of the season gone.
Although Carolina is hampered by injuries, this was a victory the Rangers could hang their hat on.
Because 25 games into the 2025-26 campaign, they are fortunate not to be lower in the standings.
“Today, I don’t think we were at our best. We found a way to win, and I thought our third was our best period,” said captain J.T. Miller, who returned to the lineup after missing the previous two games with an upper-body injury. “It’s funny, you go through the first 15 games of the year, how many games we thought we should have won. This is one of those that hopefully can help even some of those out. It’s a really good team. They play right in your face, on top of you. It’s no surprise, they’ve done it for so long.
“I think they played a little quicker than us for a majority of the game, but I thought in the third we started to play behind them and held on to pucks and had our best period. When we did have some breakdowns, [goalie Igor Shesterkin] played unreal.”
Almost a year to the day after a goaltender interference call against Kyle Palmieri lost the Islanders a game against the Blue Jackets that started their season’s death spiral, they were on the wrong end of another controversial call against those same Blue Jackets that might have had the same effect.
On the Queens side of town, the reno began in earnest almost as soon as Francisco Lindor grounded into the 4-6-3 double play. That ended a 4-0 loss before a rare sizable crowd at Miami’s loanDepot Park last Sept. 27, all of them there to witness the final death rattles of an epic baseball calamity.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba is being paid handsomely for his breakout season.
Next comes the harder part. Mostly because it can’t get any easier.
It was Kids Day at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, but for the Rangers, it’s been All About The Kids for months.
PORT ST. LUCIE — From the moment he was told he needed surgery on his left hamate bone, Francisco Lindor fixated on the recovery time. Trainers provided the Mets shortstop a six-week pathway to return to play, and Lindor was determined to hit every marker.
Dylan Garand knew the number off the top of his head. He knew that, between the regular season and playoffs, he’d logged over 160 games with AHL Hartford, and he was right. Before the Rangers recalled him Friday, Garand had served as the Wolf Pack’s goaltender 165 times.
SAN DIEGO — As you may have seen elsewhere in this newspaper (and also if you haven’t deleted me yet from your social media), I have a book coming out Tuesday called “The Bosses of The Bronx.” Much of it details the 37 years’ worth of antics, winning, losing, winning again and overall mania of George Steinbrenner’s time with the Yankees.
Don’t close the curtain on “Mean” Joe Greene.
The Knicks are on a five-game winning streak and flooded with concerns.
Dylan Garand knew the number off the top of his head. He knew that, between the regular season and playoffs, he’d logged over 160 games with AHL Hartford, and he was right. Before the Rangers recalled him Friday, Garand had served as the Wolf Pack’s goaltender 165 times.
SAN DIEGO — As you may have seen elsewhere in this newspaper (and also if you haven’t deleted me yet from your social media), I have a book coming out Tuesday called “The Bosses of The Bronx.” Much of it details the 37 years’ worth of antics, winning, losing, winning again and overall mania of George Steinbrenner’s time with the Yankees.
The Knicks are on a five-game winning streak and flooded with concerns.