3 takeaways for the Rangers heading into the holiday break

It’s been a hectic and exhausting pre-Christmas slog for the Rangers, who have played a league-high 39 games in the condensed Olympic-year schedule. But thanks to a five-goal third period in their come-from-behind 7-3 victory over Washington on Tuesday, they can fully enjoy the NHL’s three-day break before Saturday’s matchup against the rival Islanders.

Here are three takeaways from the first half of the Rangers’ season, which has so far produced a 19-16-4 record:

1. The Eastern Conference playoff race will be a dogfight

At the break, six points separate 10 teams in the conference, from the second-place team in the Metropolitan Division to the eighth-place team in the wild card standings. So far, nobody has really been able to separate from the pack, and with all the injuries that every team has been forced to deal with, there’s no reason to assume that will change anytime soon. The Rangers are the first team below the playoff cut line, even on points with Florida, the second wild card holder. But teams will move up and down the standings on a daily basis the rest of the way, so it’ll be imperative for the Rangers to extend their winning streaks as much as possible, and shorten their losing streaks as quickly as possible.

2. They’ve played great defense

After years of playing high-risk, East-West, turnover-filled hockey that inevitably led to too many high-grade scoring chances against and put immense pressure on goalies Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quinn to bail them out, coach Mike Sullivan has gotten them to play more North-South, and to be more responsible defensively. And through good defense, they’ve actually created more offense. While they’ve allowed more shots on goal (28.3 per game) than they’ve taken (26.0 per game) they’ve created more scoring chances (851-799) and more high-danger chances (366-307) than they’ve allowed, according to Natural Stat Trick. That’s good. Now all they have to do is score on more of those great chances they’re getting.

3. Mika Zibanejad is bouncing back

After a disappointing 20-goal, 62-point season in 2024-25, he needed to, and while he’s not looking at a 39-goal, 91-point season like he put up in 2022-23 (or the 41 goals in 57 games he had in 2019-20), at the pace he’s on, he would score 26 goals, which would be more in line with his 82-game average of 27.6 for his career. The return of Adam Fox from an upper-body injury for the second half of the season should improve the power play, which likely will mean an uptick in goals and points for Zibanejad, as well, so the numbers at year’s end might even be better than the current projections. He has seven power play goals this season – as many as he had all last year – and his next will tie him with Camille Henry and his pal Chris Kreider for the franchise lead in power play goals, with 116. Certainly, the Rangers will need other players to produce, if they are going to make the playoffs. But without a productive Zibanejad they don’t have a chance.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.