Day: September 29, 2026

Will Mike Sullivan’s second year behind the Rangers bench be better than his first? Have the Rangers added enough offense to replace the loss of Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck? What about the defense, will Sean Durzi, Marcus Pettersson and Alberts Smits be enough of an improvement over Will Borgen, Urho Vaakanainen, Scott Morrow and Matthew Robertson?

What about captain J.T. Miller. Was last year a sign of more to come, or just an aberration. Can the Rangers actually make it back to the playoffs after watching for the last two seasons sitting on the sidelines. I’m here to make up answers to all those questions and more, so read on.

The Rangers are set to open their 2026-27 season tonight in Boston – 8:00pm EST ESPN. It’ll mark their 101st season in the NHL, and 100th in which they’ve played games – we all still remember 2024-25 right? There’ll be a number of milestones that will be set with the game tonight, and a good many more that could be set during the season.

Lines appear to be set for the game, with Alberts Smits and Matt Rempe winning starting positions over Matthew Robertson and Jaroslav Chmelar respectively. Joonas Korpisalo will be the backup, having won the job over Dylan Garand in the abbreviated training camp. The good news is that Garand made it safely through waivers yesterday and was reassigned to Hartford.