Bold claim: defensemen sparked a road victory that changed the Rangers' momentum. In Ottawa, the Rangers leaned on their back end to generate offense, turning gaps into goals and elevating team speed in a 4-2 win at the Canadian Tire Centre. This victory extended a strong stretch, marking five wins in their last six games and highlighting one of the season’s more impressive runs.
Two of New York’s four goals came from defensemen, a clear signal that the blueline would shoulder more responsibility after losing their top defender, Adam Fox, for the foreseeable future. As head coach Mike Sullivan noted, the game’s tempo now requires defensemen to join the rush and contribute in the offensive zone. The team showed greater net-front presence, and when the blue line was used, traffic in front of the goalie made life harder for the opponent’s netminder.
In the first two games without Fox, four goals have come from defensemen. To put that into perspective, Rangers defensemen, without Fox’s steady production, had totaled just nine goals through the first 27 games of the season.
With Fox sidelined, Vladislav Gavrikov has raised his offensive game, scoring his second goal in as many games and matching his career high of six goals just 29 games into the 2025-26 campaign. “He’s a very smart player,” praised Mika Zibanejad, who opened the scoring on a two-on-one rush with captain J.T. Miller. Zibanejad’s strike gave the Rangers a team-leading 10th goal of the season, and Gavrikov’s finish added early momentum.
Carson Soucy and Will Borgen contributed the other two goals from the defense, both coming in the last two games and helping push the blue-line total to 16 on the season, good for fifth in the NHL.
The Rangers set an early tone, racing to a 2-0 lead before the midpoint of the first period. Artemi Panarin started the sequence by winning a puck along the boards and feeding Zibanejad and Miller on a two-on-one rush. Panarin later added an empty-netter for his 900th career point, while Zibanejad drilled his 10th goal of the season off a dish from Miller.
Gavrikov’s strike in the first period, his third goal in four games, capped the early scoring surge and handed New York a 2-0 advantage. The Senators countered with their power-play efficiency, scoring twice when man-advantage opportunities arose, pulling within one on two occasions.
Dylan Cozens opened the scoring for Ottawa with a slot goal, and Brady Tkachuk redirected a circular shot from the circle off Batherson to make it a one-score game late in the third. Still, Sullivan praised his team’s resilience, noting Ottawa’s push in the third and the Rangers’ ability to respond without getting rattled. The defense stepped up, and New York found a way to close out the game with the right plays and continued focus on the game plan.
And this is where the discussion gets interesting: with Fox out for the foreseeable future, does this new defensive-forward dynamic represent a sustainable shift for the Rangers, or is it a temporary adjustment born of necessity? How far can the blue-line contribution go as the season progresses, and will the rest of the league adapt to a defense-first challenge to New York? Share your views in the comments: should the Rangers lean into this defensive surge as a long-term strategy, or should they prioritize reintegrating Fox’s offensive versatility when he returns?
