Unsightly defensive mistakes among key Rangers takeaways in opening-night loss

September 30, 2026 · Yahoo Sports

IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The New York Rangers had seven new players in their opening-night Tuesday who never played a regular-season game before with the Blueshirts. Yet there were still some glaring similarities between this Rangers team and the one that finished 30th overall in the NHL last season.

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To start, the Rangers were shut out 3-0 by the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night at TD Garden. You might remember that the Rangers were blanked a League-high 10 times in 2025-26, including on opening night, a 3-0 home-ice loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

More importantly, there were glaring defensive miscues, including 19 recorded giveaways, several of which led to odd-man rushes in transition for the Bruins. If not for Igor Shesterkin — where have you heard this before? — the Rangers should’ve been down multiple goals by time the second intermission arrived.

“We turn some pucks over and we give them some Grade-A looks off of those turnovers, and then we gave up way too many odd-man rushes,” coach Mike Sullivan explained afterward.

Instead, the game was scoreless as time and again Shesterkin made the big save, stopping all 15 shots he faced through 40 minutes.

The Rangers punched back with a strong start in the third period, but two crucial turnovers late in regulation proved to be their undoing. The Bruins scored at 16:14 and again at 17:06, each off a neutral-zone giveaway, and added an empty-netter at 17:29 to hand the Rangers another opening night shutout loss — the first time in franchise history they were shut out two years in a row in the first game of the season.

Fraser Minten scores the first goal of the Bruins’ season.

What a shot. pic.twitter.com/xFr2Jbe7QY

— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) September 30, 2026

“It’s Game 1. We’ll get better,” captain J.T. Miller said postgame.

There’s quite a bit to clean up defensively, and it’s not like the Rangers generated much offense with their 24 shots against Jeremy Swayman.

But Miller’s right. It’s one game out of 84. So, no reason to panic, for sure. Though it’s hard not to think back how the first game last season was a tone-setter for such an incredibly disappointing year on Broadway.

Key takeaways after Rangers lose season opener 3-0 to Bruins

Disconnected defensively

The underlying numbers for the bottom-four Rangers defensemen were pretty unsightly the first two periods. But Miller and Sullivan both noted that the Rangers forwards didn’t do their part to support the defensemen, leading to an unhealthy dose of odd-man rushes against Tuesday, especially against the second pair of Marcus Pettersson and Sean Durzi.

“If we want our D to be active off the offensive blue line, off the rush, things of that nature, then as a forward, we have to build a level of trust that we’re going to replace that defenseman and stay above the attack until that defenseman returns,” Sullivan explained in detail. “We would leak back in and dive back into the play before the defenseman returned. It happened four times in the second period, and that’s how we gave up the types of odd-man rushes we gave up.”

Miller added that “the timing was off with the reloading with the forwards.”

Shesterkin caught a break at 4:17 of the second period when Morgan Geekie wired a shot off iron during a 2-on-1 rush. But the Rangers stud goaltender was terrific stuffing Pavel Zacha’s breakway attempt 40 seconds later, in what was a terrible back-to-back sequence defensively for the Rangers. Shesterkin later stoned Boston’s Fraser Minten and David Pastrnak on similar scoring opportunities.

It actually feels inexplicable that Natural Stat Trick recorded only seven high-danger scoring chances the entire night for the Bruins.

Rangers mistakes finally catch up with them

As ugly as it was for large swaths of the first two periods — in particular the second — things settled down defensively for New York in the third period. That is until Vladislav Gavrikov flipped a puck carelessly into the neutral one, and had it picked off by Mason Lohrei, who sent the Bruins quickly into transition. Minten wired a shot stick side past Shesterkin and it was 1-0 with 3:46 left in regulation.

The Bruins were energized, and the Rangers sagged — leading to J.J. Peterka’s highlight goal, when he completely undressed Braden Schneider, slipping the puck between the Rangers defenseman’s legs before beating Shesterkin through the five-hole 52 seconds later.

JJ PETERKA'S FIRST AS A BRUIN IS AN ABSOLUTE BEAUTY 🐻 pic.twitter.com/4qoshhe4zU
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) September 30, 2026

Mark Kastelic sealed it with an emoty-net goal 23 seconds after Peterka scored, completing a three-goals-in-1:15 span.

Smits settles in

The first three shifts of Alberts Smits‘ NHL debut were memorable, though only for all the wrong reasons. But to his credit, the 18-year-old defenseman settled down and settled in to play 16:39 TOI in his first NHL game.

On his first shift, Smits quickly turned the puck over in his own end. On his next shift, Smits iced the puck on a misfired clear, leading to a pair of shots on goal for the Bruins after they won the ensuing offensive-zone face-off. Then on his third shift, Smits again coughed the puck up at his own blue line, leading to a Bruins shot that whistled wide of the Rangers net.

But Smits is nothing if not mature, and that was on full display as he moved past those early mistakes — likely caused by some first-game jitters — and pulled it together the rest of the way.

“Obviously, there was a lot of stuff that I would like to take it back, especially from the first period,” Smits said postgame. “I think I just gotta make better decisions at some points, and made a couple plays that wasn’t there. And I would like to take those back.”

Smits ended up minus-1 in his debut, as he was on-ice for Peterka’s goal. But the kid showed some swagger before the game, when he took the ice for his solo rookie lap helmetless, to a chorus of boos at TD Garden.

Alberta Šmita debijas aplis NHL! 🇱🇻🇱🇻🇱🇻 pic.twitter.com/7Jzxk4N1vE
— NHL Latvija (@Latvija_NHL) September 30, 2026

Captain’s line was Rangers best

New York’s best line throughout was the on centered by their captain, Miller. He, Pavel Dorofeyev, and Oliver Bjorkstrand out-shot the Bruins 11-5 at 5v5, had a team-best 68.89 expected goal share, and generated eight high-danger scoring chances, while on ice for just one against.

Bjorkstrand started fast with a couple shots in the first period, including one off a rare Rangers odd-man rush just 3:24 into the game that Jeremy Swayman swallowed up. The veteran newcomer finished with four shots on goal, second most on the Rangers behind Dorofeyev, his linemate, who had five. The 25-year-old came close to giving the Rangers a 1-0 lead on the opening shift of the third period, when he collected a Bruins turnover behind their net, and quickly attempted a wraparound that hit Swayman’s pads.

Nine minutes into the final period, Dorofeyev was stopped on a partial breakaway, collected the rebound and set up Miller, the trailer, for a point-blank look that Swayman denied.

No points for that threesome, but all in all a strong first game together.

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