There is no place for the New York Rangers to go but up as they open their home schedule against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night.
Tuesday’s contest against the host Boston Bruins looked a lot like the season opener last year for a New York club that finished last in the Eastern Conference.
The Rangers watched the Original Six tilt unravel as the home side hit the net three times in 75 seconds late in the third period in a 3-0 win.
Captain J.T. Miller said the Rangers knew it would be a tough matchup of elite goaltenders in Igor Shesterkin and Boston’s Jeremy Swayman.
“It’s Game 1. If we had won the game I would be saying the same thing,” he said. “We’re going to get better as we go here.”
Latvian defenseman Alberts Smits, the 18-year-old fifth pick of this year’s draft, made his NHL debut Tuesday by going minus-1 in 16:54 of ice time.
Coach Mike Sullivan became the third American-born mentor to reach 1,000 games. In its opener last season, New York also was blanked, dropping a 3-0 matchup against the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins.
The past two seasons have been nightmarish ones for the Rangers, who made it to the conference final three years ago before losing to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.
The Rangers were miserable on home ice last season (14-20-7), going 0-6-1 out of the gate and winless there in the campaign’s first full month, in a terrible beginning for a club playing in the world’s most famous arena.
That led general manager Chris Drury to reshape the roster.
Point-producing forwards Artemi Panarin (trade deadline deal) and Vincent Trocheck (offseason move) were dealt, as were Sam Carrick and defenseman Will Borgen.
High-scoring Pavel Dorofeyev was brought in from Vegas, while veterans Marcus Pettersson, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Joe Veleno, Sean Durzi and Joonas Korpisalo were also added to the fold.
Expectations are a little loftier for Tampa Bay.
The club’s standout players racked up hardware as high-scoring winger Nikita Kucherov claimed the Hart Trophy, while steadfast goalie Andre Vasilevskiy secured his second Vezina Trophy.
Coach Jon Cooper claimed the Jack Adams Award as the top coach. Anthony Cirelli came close to winning the Selke Trophy that is awarded to the league’s top defensive forward, finishing second to Montreal’s Nick Suzuki.
Individual accomplishments aside, futility has defined the Atlantic Division team when the regular season ends.
The Lightning have not won a playoff series since the 2022 season, dropping four straight first-round matchups against Toronto, arch rival Florida in consecutive postseasons and Montreal last season on home ice in a Game 7.
Bjorkstrand departed for the Rangers via free agency, and Nick Paul and Darren Raddysh went to Toronto. However, forward Ilya Mikheyev (Chicago) and goalie Dennis Hildeby (Toronto) joined the Lightning.
John Carlson, a reliable 36-year-old defenseman, will replace Raddysh and quarterback the power play.
With training camp unusually short as the league expands to an 84-game season, Carlson arrived before camp. He spent 17 seasons and played 1,159 career games with the Washington Capitals before finishing last season with 16 games for the Anaheim Ducks.
“School started early,” said Carlson, a right-handed shot. “There were a lot of guys (in camp) over the last month. That was a big plus for me getting familiar with the guys.”