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LAS VEGAS — The Rangers’ early reputation as road warriors was never going to be sustainable, but it has already begun to wane.
Limited to fewer than 20 shots on goal on the road for the first time this season, the Blueshirts offense stalled once again in a 3-2 loss to the Golden Knights on Tuesday night at T-Mobile Arena.
The regulation loss counted as just their second away from Madison Square Garden so far this season, with the prior one coming over three weeks ago in Calgary.
Offense has been in short supply for the Rangers as a team for most of the 2025-26 campaign.
The lack of production from key players, however, is quickly approaching worrisome territory.
One goal in the past eight games from captain J.T. Miller isn’t enough.
Four goals in 21 games from Alexis Lafrenière isn’t enough.
Taylor Raddysh, who has skated the past four games on the fourth line, being tied for the third-most goals on the team (5) is indicative of how much more they need from their marquee skaters.
Jonny Brodzinski scoring the only Rangers goal through 57 minutes of the 60-minute contest Tuesday night in Vegas tells you all you need to know about how this one went.
The veteran depth skater almost had another in the third period, but the play was challenged for offside and quickly waved off.
Neither team gave up much through the opening 20 minutes, but the Golden Knights were the only one to find the back of the net.
With Artemi Panarin in the box for tripping, Vegas scored just 26 seconds into the man-advantage after Braedon Bowman capitalized on a juicy rebound. It marked the third straight game the Blueshirts gave up a power-play goal.
The Golden Knights made it a 2-0 game early in the second period, when Ben Hutton scored his first goal of the season less than three and a half minutes in. Failing to get the puck out, the Rangers lost it to Pavel Dorofeyev, who found Hutton for a shot that trickled through Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin.
Head coach Mike Sullivan then began tweaking the forward lines to try to jump-start the Rangers offensively.
It proved effective, with Brodzinski cleaning up a rebound off Will Cuylle’s shot on a two-on-one rush to cut the Vegas lead in half. Still, the Rangers did not produce nearly enough quality scoring chances to really threaten despite the low-scoring affair.
After 40 minutes, Jusso Parssinen — back in the lineup for the first time in four games — led the Rangers with two shots on goal despite logging the lowest time on ice.
The Golden Knights capitalized on their second straight power play at the 7:18 mark of the third period, when Shea Theodore’s shot from the top of the zone found twine through traffic.
The six-on-five Rangers goal from Vincent Trocheck with 2:43 left in regulation was ultimately too little too late.
