Rangers players, coach pleased with effort vs. Sabres despite lopsided result
Rangers goalie Jonathan Quick and winger Alexis Lafreniere look on after the Sabres scored a shorthanded goal late in the third period at Madison Square Garden on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. Credit: Jim McIsaac
GREENBURGH — The analysis, roughly 14 hours later, was the same as it was in the immediate aftermath.
Mike Sullivan and Alexis Lafreniere and J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck all said the Rangers did enough things well to earn two points.
So though the result — a 5-2 loss to the Sabres on Thursday night at the Garden — was not ideal, the way they played, particularly in the third period, was encouraging to them.
“I felt like the whole game, we competed extremely hard, [and] I thought the third period was our best without a doubt,” Sullivan said after a 45-minute practice Friday morning at the MSG Training Center. “Just the heightened level of intensity. Just playing the right way and making good decisions. I think when we play fast, we look fast.
“I think that was an indication of that in the third period. I think that that third period has been one of our better periods most recently [in the] last handful of games. That’s the game, that’s the type of game that we aspire to put on the ice more consistently, and that’s going to be a challenge.”
The Rangers outshot the Sabres 14-2 in the final 20 minutes, but Mattias Samuelsson (shorthanded) and Ryan McLeod (empty-netter) scored in a span of 3 minutes, 52 seconds late in the period to put the game out of reach.
And, as a result, the Rangers (20-19-6) found themselves in 14th place in the Eastern Conference, three points ahead of last-place Columbus, as they prepared to face the Bruins (23-19-2) in a nationally televised matinee on Saturday.
As unsettling as that is, the Rangers can point to the reality that they are only four points behind the Sabres (23-15-4) for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference despite having the second-fewest regulation wins (13), second-worst points percentage (.511) second-fewest goals (118) and fourth-worst regulation and/or overtime wins (18) in the conference.
“We [just have] to keep trying to play well and [try] to put the puck in the net when we have a chance,” said Lafreniere, whose pass was intercepted by McLeod and led to Samuelsson’s shorthanded goal with 5:22 left in the contest. “It’s good to play good hockey, but obviously we want wins.”
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