Rangers botch chance at momentum again with loss to Maple Leafs

The time to string wins together is now, but the Rangers haven’t been able to do that since mid-November. 

Friday night’s 3-2 loss to the Maple Leafs at Madison Square Garden counted as the fifth consecutive time the Blueshirts whiffed on an opportunity to stack three wins in a row, which deprived them of a crucial two points with their surrounding teams in the Eastern Conference wild-card race dormant for the night. 

“We need to win games right now, and we didn’t,” Ryan Lindgren said bluntly. “That’s all that matters.” 

It’s been more than three months since the Rangers won three in a row, from November 14-19, which marked their second-longest win streak of the season after they collected four straight as part of a 5-0-1 start to the 2024-25 campaign. 

That happened to be just before a detrimental 4-15 stretch of the season the Rangers still are making up for as they push to make the playoffs. 

The Rangers, who just last season won three or more in a row nine times (including a 10-game win streak), have put themselves in a precarious position where every win is vital and every loss is costly.