Rangers hope Winter Classic win triggers ‘fresh start’ back home in 2026

The New York Rangers’ stars, led by Mika Zibanejad, shone brightly in their 5-1 win against the Florida Panthers at the 2026 NHL Winter Classic on Friday night at loanDepot Park in Miami. Their job now is to translate New York’s latest success outdoors into more wins when they return to Madison Square Garden next week.

The Rangers improved to 3-0-0 in the Winter Classic and 6-0-0 all-time in outdoor games, largely thanks to the performance of their best players.

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Zibanejad, who was named to Sweden’s Olympic team earlier in the day, had the first hat trick in Winter Classic history and the first five-point NHL game outdoors. Linemates Artemi Panarin (two goals, one assist) and Alexis Lafreniere (three primary assists) each had three points. They and Vincent Trocheck (two assists) combined for all 13 of the Rangers’ points.

New York’s best defenseman, Adam Fox, and No. 1 goaltender, Igor Shesterkin also came up big. Fox was on the ice for the first four Rangers goals, and Shesterkin made 36 saves.

The question now is where the Rangers (20-18-5) go from here after a much-needed win closed a 2-3-1 stretch of six straight games on the road. For New York to have realistic hopes of returning to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, this victory must be the spark that starts a winning surge, especially on home ice.

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“We played the way we wanted to play,” Panarin said. “We played the way we discussed before the game. Hopefully, in the future, we’re going to play the same way.”

Rangers hope Winter Classic win sparks surge, especially at MSG

Beginning Monday night against the Utah Mammoth, the Rangers play four of their next five games at the Garden, where they are just 5-10-3. And 23 of their remaining 39 games are at MSG. So, Zibanejad knows the Rangers, who are one point out of the second wild-card position in the East but just 15th in the conference with a .523 points percentage, can’t keep losing at home and expect to reach the postseason.

“For us as a team, the home record we have hasn’t been very good,” he told TNT after the game. “At times I think we’ve just been able to keep things very simple on the road. We have to find a way to do that at home.

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“I think early on the [home] struggles got to us – the reaction of not losing at home, trying to get that first [win]. … I’m hoping with the new year, we’ll get a bit of a fresh start and come back home with a good feeling after this one.”

Zibanejad’s hat trick was the third in any NHL outdoor game, joining David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins (2021 NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe) and Tyler Toffoli of the Los Angeles Kings (2020 Stadium Series). It was his fourth career five-point game, and the first since March 25, 2021, when he had six points (three goals, three assists) against the Philadelphia Flyers.

He and his teammates did a good job not letting all the Winter Classic hoopla cloud the fact that this was a win the Rangers desperately needed after a three-game winless stretch (0-2-1) following the Christmas break.

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“The energy around an event like this, and a lot of the activity around an event like this, sometimes, if you’re not careful, the unintended consequence is you lose sight of the fact that these are two real important points in the standings,” coach Mike Sullivan explained postgame. “That was something that we tried to have a discussion with our players about and just making sure that when the puck dropped that everybody understands what’s on the line here and the impact that it could potentially have. And how important it was for us to stop the bleeding, so to speak.

“I thought the guys did a great job. We competed hard.”

The Rangers are 1-0-0 in 2026 after a 2025 they’d rather forget. As Sullivan pointed out Thursday, they’re still close enough that a hot week or two can help vault them into a wild-card spot – or, even better, into the top three in the Metropolitan Division.

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Zibanejad said the Rangers hope that starting the new year by defeating the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions on national television is what they need to run off the kind of surge that’s eluded them this season. The Rangers haven’t won more than three games in a row this season. Their last four-game winning streak was in October of 2024.

“We talked about it, about a fresh start here,” Zibanejad said. “Got a couple days as a team, with families and friends, and just enjoy this moment. I thought we did a good job with that and really focused when it came to game time.

“We’re hoping this can be a start to something good for us.”

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