Saying that the New York Rangers have had a subpar start to the season is an understatement.

The Blueshirts have a 13-12-2 record, and they sit 12th in the Eastern Conference. Rangers optimists will argue they're only one point behind the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second wild-card spot. However, the Penguins have three games in hand, so the Rangers have to hope that other teams ahead of them falter to climb back into a playoff position.

Unfortunately, the Rangers got bad news over the weekend when star defenseman Adam Fox was injured in a game Saturday against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Fox was placed on long-term injured reserve with a shoulder injury that will sideline him from week to week. And the Rangers will be in tough to stabilize their play in their zone without Fox, who leads the team in average ice time at 23:50.

Fox and defense partner Vladislav Gavrikov are by far the most-used Rangers blueliners. Those two average more than four minutes per game more than Will Borgen and Braden Schneider. And Rangers coach Mike Sullivan acknowledged it won't be easy to simply slot in another D-man to replace the high-end performances the team has come to expect from Fox.

"Obviously, 'Foxy' is not an easy guy to replace for so many reasons," Sullivan said after practice Monday. "I'm stating the obvious when I say that, but we're going to put a game plan together based on the people that we have to try and set our group up for success."

That's far easier said than done. With 26 points in 27 games, Fox sits second in the NHL in points by a defenseman, ahead of everyone other than Colorado Avalanche superstar Cale Makar. So while the Blueshirts will miss Fox's high panic threshold and elite ability to read plays in his own zone, his talent on offense will be missed the most.

Adam Fox Is A Huge Contributor To Rangers' Subpar Offense

The Rangers' goals-for average of 2.63 is the fifth-worst in the league right now, and three of the four teams below the Rangers in that department – the St. Louis Blues, Nashville Predators and Calgary Flames – are at the bottom of the NHL standings.

Thus, removing Fox's terrific offensive skills is going to hurt the Rangers badly – and that includes missing him as a key member of their power play. The next-highest scoring Rangers defenseman is Gavrikov, who has 11 points – less than half of what Fox has this year.

Having arguably the best goaltender in the NHL, star Igor Shesterkin, will help the Rangers on 'D.' The team allows only 2.63 goals against per game, which ranks tied for the fifth-fewest in the NHL.

The addition of Gavrikov has improved the Rangers' play in their own end, but on offense, Fox's contributions will be especially missed. There's no player Sullivan can insert into the lineup who will have a notable positive impact on offense the way Fox can be a difference-maker with the puck.

Fox's absence puts more pressure on the forwards to put up the points. Artemi Panarin was tied as the NHL's 10th-highest scorer in November, with 19 points in 15 games, and fellow forwards Mika Zibanejad, Will Cuylle and Vincent Trocheck recorded at least 10 points that month. They stepped up their games from October, when Fox led the way with nine points in 12 games and Panarin and Zibanejad hovered around half a point per game.

Rangers' Upcoming Opponents Include Top Scorers

Fox will miss at least 10 games and 24 days with his shoulder injury. Of their 10 opponents, only three rank in the top 10 for fewest goals against per game – the Dallas Stars, Colorado Avalanche and Philadelphia Flyers. But five of them rank in the top 10 for most goals-for per game – the Avalanche, Anaheim Ducks, Stars, Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Blackhawks.

That means the Rangers' defense will face significant tests in limiting their opponents' scoring chances so that they can do enough on offense without one of their top producers.

It's unlikely the Rangers have enough depth to handle the test on defense without Fox.

You can ask veteran Rangers defensemen Borgen and Carson Soucy to eat more minutes in the wake of Fox's injury. You can ask youngsters Schneider and Scott Morrow to take advantage of the additional opportunities Fox's injury will provide to them. Considering the Rangers' defense pairs that don't involve Gavrikov or Fox have all been outchanced this season, according to moneypuck.com, they don't inspire much confidence.

Fox was in the midst of a bounce-back performance this season. He should be back by the Olympics, according to ESPN's Emily Kaplan. But if the Rangers can't tread water without him, Fox's offensive resurgence will probably be for naught.

2025-26 NHL Fantasy Hockey Week 9 Primer and PickupsTarget top teams for maximum games. Exploit streaming opportunities and uncover hidden gems like Mats Zuccarello and Jared McCann.

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Will Smith's new mindset pays off as Sharks star's hot streak continues in win originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Will Smith recently made a conscious change to his game, and it’s paying dividends for the young Sharks center.

His two-goal night helped San Jose secure a 6-3 win over the Utah Mammoth on Monday at SAP Center and improve to 13-11-3. Smith’s first goal of the night had to be seen to be believed, and he credits his near-hat trick to simply shooting the puck more.

“Just trying to shoot a lot,” Smith told reporters after the game. “I think the more you shoot, you have a better chance of scoring. Just try to get pucks on net, and then see what happens.”

What happened was a thing of beauty on Smith’s first goal, which came with 13:44 left in the second period and gave the Sharks a 4-2 lead. Smith dangled through the Mammoth’s defense before flipping in the shot, marking his third consecutive game with a goal.

After scoring again less than three minutes later to push San Jose ahead 6-2, Smith became the second player age 20 or younger in Sharks history to have multiple goals in consecutive games after scoring twice against the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday, joining Tomas Hertl (Oct. 5-8, 2013).

Sharks veteran Tyler Toffoli also scored twice in the first period Monday against Utah — his first game with a goal since Nov. 5 — and had two assists.

Pavol Regenda scored on a power-play goal in his Sharks debut during the third period, and Adam Gaudette scored a goal in the second that was sandwiched between Smith’s two scores.

Macklin Celebrini didn’t score Monday but finished with three assists, bringing his season total to 26, while goalie Yaroslav Askarov ended the night with 31 saves and the rookie lead in wins with 10. In Monday’s win, Celebrini became the fourth teen in NHL history to reach 40 points in 27 or fewer games, joining Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby.

After Monday’s victory, the Sharks currently own the Western Conference’s No. 1 wild-card spot and have won eight of their last nine home games. It isn’t lost on Smith how great of a group San Jose has both on and off the ice.

“We’re super tight off the ice,” Smith told NBC Sports California’s Tara Slone after the win. “I think everyone knows that, if you see s at the practice rink or even playing soccer before the games, you can just tell how tight of a group we have.

“It’s special to be a part of.”

Download and follow the San Jose Hockey Now podcast

The Florida Panthers have recalled center/winger Jack Studnicka from their AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers. 

The 26-year-old has played in just eight AHL games this season, but has notched a goal and six points. Studnicka was a standout performer during pre-season, scoring four goals and five points in four games. 

The former 2017 second-round pick (53rd overall) hasn't had much success at the NHL level, but has amassed 107 games of NHL experience. In those 107 games, Studnicka has scored six goals and 16 points, doing so with the Boston Bruins, Vancouver Canucks and the San Jose Sharks.

In his AHL career, Studnicka has scored 58 goals and 168 points in 233 games. 

The Panthers are dealing with several injuries to their forward group, those being Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Tomas Nosek, Jonah Gadjovich, Eetu Luostarinen and Cole Schwindt. Prior to Studnicka's call-up, the Panthers had 12 healthy forwards, and Studnicka's arrival provides them with a ready player willing to step into the lineup if additional injuries are sustained.

Jack Devine has played five NHL games since his call-up, but he hasn't recorded a point yet and is averaging just 8:43 of ice time. 

The Panthers are back in action on Tuesday when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs. Currently, it's unknown whether Studnicka will make his season debut against the Maple Leafs. 

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Panthers' AHL Affiliate Sign Robby Fabbri To PTOVeteran winger Robby Fabbri has signed a PTO with the Florida Panthers' AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers.

Flyers fall to Penguins as they lose key piece and the game in second period originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Things went downhill for the Flyers on Monday night not long after Tyson Foerster went up the tunnel in pain.

The Flyers were rolled by the Penguins, 5-1, at Xfinity Mobile Arena. They also lost one of their top young goal scorers to an injury.

Foerster exited in a 1-1 game during the second period and did not return. He suffered an upper-body injury while unloading a shot on the Flyers’ second 5-on-3 power play.

After the Flyers came up empty, Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust each scored power play goals to give Pittsburgh control of the game in the middle stanza. Rodrigo Abols and Sean Couturier were both whistled for holding penalties.

It was a massive momentum swing. Just 43 seconds prior to suffering his injury, Foerster tied the game on the Flyers’ first 5-on-3 opportunity.

Coming off an impressive 3-1-0 road trip, Rick Tocchet’s club did not have a good start to this season-long six-game homestand.

For a second time this season, the Flyers (14-8-3) had a three-game winning streak snapped. They haven’t won four in a row since Feb. 6-12 of the 2023-24 season.

The Flyers are 1-1-0 in their four-game regular-season series against the Penguins (13-7-5). The first meeting saw some blood boil late in a 3-2 shootout win for the Flyers.

• Dan Vladar made 22 saves on 27 shots.

With two goals, Crosby continued to torture the Flyers. He now has 59 regular-season markers against the Flyers, the most of any player all-time.

In the final frame, Tommy Novak added a third power play goal for Pittsburgh. Not even two minutes later, Kevin Hayes scored the Penguins’ fifth goal.

Pittsburgh netminder Tristan Jarry stopped 27 of the Flyers’ 28 shots.

• Despite coming off his first two-goal effort of the season, Matvei Michkov was the first player on the ice Monday at the Flyers’ morning skate.

The 20-year-old winger did a lot of work in close and around the net with assistant coach Jay Varady. After Michkov failed to score on a couple of attempts, you could hear his competitiveness take over.

“He wanted to work on the down-low stuff, the backdoor, getting the puck up,” Tocchet said. “It’s funny, he was getting mad at himself, but that’s him, he wants to look at other avenues of scoring. And that’s one of them he can be really good at.”

Michkov was right there battling around the net on Foerster’s goal. He didn’t have a point on the night, but he has looked so much more like himself over the last three and a half weeks.

The Flyers will need more of that, too, if Foerster is to miss time.

• During the first period, Blake Lizotte gave Garnet Hathaway a blatant shot to the jewels right in front of the Flyers’ bench. Hathaway had just finished a hit on Lizotte, who then retaliated with his stick.

The Flyers failed to capitalize on the ensuing power play. Nineteen seconds later, Crosby had them in a 1-0 hole.

• The Flyers are back in action Wednesday when they host the Sabres (7:30 p.m. ET/TNT).

It's hard to believe that we are already two months into the 2025-26 NHL season, time is flying. After the first two months of the season, the Los Angeles Kings (12-6-7) currently sit at second place in the Pacific division with 31 points. They trail only the Anaheim Ducks who also have 31 points but hold the tiebreak over LA with their 15 wins. Through all the ups and downs it has been a solid start to the season for the Kings.

Today, we are going to dive into the best, and worst moments while recapping the hectic month of November. 

Los Angeles played 13 games in November, posting a record of 7-3-3 in that span. There is virtually no room for complaints when you collect 17 of a possible 24 points. Their play in November caused a notable improvement from October where they went 5-3-4. Even when they lose, the Kings have done a terrific job clawing out points as they currently have the second most overtime/shootout losses. Although it's not typically a stat to boast about, the NHL is a league where every single point matters.

Now let's get into the good, the bad, and the ugly for the month of November.

The Good

Locking Up Kempe

After months of negations and speculation, Adrian Kempe and the Kings finally got a deal done. On the afternoon of November 16th, the news broke that Kempe had agreed to a massive eight-year contract extension worth $85 million, with an AAV of $10.625 million. This was massive for the everyone involved as a major distraction went away. Since signing, Kempe has just two goals and one assist in six games played. Although the 29-year-old has struggled since putting pen to paper, his extension was the shining moment of the month in Los Angeles. However, in the Kings most recent victory against the Canucks he did just register his first multi-point night since October 23rd. Hopefully his recent effort is the beginning of a much needed hot-streak for the Kings official face of the franchise moving forward.

Kings And Adrian Kempe Agree To Long-Term Contract ExtensionThe Los Angeles Kings secured superstar Adrian Kempe for eight more years, keeping a key piece of their future in Los Angeles.

Six Game Road Trip

The Kings began a six game road trip in Pittsburgh on November 9th, and for the first time all season, the Kings played four games in a calendar week. In those four games, LA went for 4/4 with victories over the Penguins, Canadiens, Maple Leafs, and Senators. At that point, the trip was already a huge success. They did lose to the Capitals and Sharks in the final two games, but managed to finish with a 4-1-1 record, collecting 9 of a potential 12 points. Road dominance was easily the on-ice highlight of the month for LA as they now have a 9-2-4 record away from home.

Play of Darcy Kuemper

Veteran goaltender Darcy Kuemper was the star of the month for the Kings. In November, Kuemper went 5-2-2 and was the main reason that some games were competitive. In nine games last month, the 35-year-old posted a 1.99 GAA as well as very respectable .920 SV%. Kuemper's best game came on November 24th in a 2-1 victory over the Senators where we saw the netminder stop 27/28 shots while posting a 1.15 GSAx. After two months, Kuemper is now 8-4-5 with a 2.39 GAA, .907 SV%, and a GSAx of 11.1. 

The Bad

Drew Doughty Injury

On November 15th, Kings legendary blue-liner Drew Doughty blocked a shot in a bout with the Senators, prompting him to exit the game. The 35-year-old has not been seen in action since. He was originally designated as 'week-to-week' before being placed on injured reserve on November 20th. Although he remains on the IR, Doughty did skate on November 29th but there was no update on his current status. Before being sidelined, Doughty had two goals and six assists for eight points in 19 games. He even became the Kings all-time leader in goals by a defenseman when he scored his 162nd career goal on November 4th against the Jets, passing Rob Blake.

Kings Defenseman Drew Doughty Out ‘Week-To-Week,’ Will Not Play Against CapitalsLos Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty has been sidelined with a lower-body injury that he suffered on Saturday. He'll miss Monday's clash with the Washington Capitals.

Warren Foegele's Health & Production

It has been an incredibly rough start to the season for Kings forward Warren Foegele who dealt with injury and offensive struggles. At the end of October, Foegele was injured after being on the receiving end of an awkward body check. He missed five games before returning to the lineup on November 9th. In the next eight games, the 29-year-old was playing well, scoring three goals in the span. On November 25th, Foegele left practice early and has been listed as day-to-day since with no update otherwise. A brutal blow for the speedy winger who was seemingly finding his game after a very shaky start to the season. In 18 games, Foegele has just four goals.

Devastating Loss To The Ducks

On November 28th, the Kings played in perhaps the biggest game of the season so far. They did battle with the Ducks in a game where first in the division was up for grabs. After a hard fought 40 minutes the score was 2-2 and early in the third period LA took a stranglehold on the game after scoring two quick goals to take a 4-2 lead. It seemed as if they were going to steal two massive points from their divisional foe until the lead slipped away from them as the Ducks tied the game with just 1:31 left. Anaheim then went on to win in a shootout, resulting in the worst loss of the year for the Kings. Despite the frustrating result, the rivalry between these two teams has reached another level level as this game could very well be a playoff preview.

How Likely Is A Freeway Face-Off First-Round Playoff Series?It's a new era of the Freeway Face-Off as the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles are neck and neck in the Pacific Division standings. With that, it may not be long before we see a first-round matchup between the two teams for the first time ever.

The Ugly

Andrei Kuzmenko Situation

Last summer, the Kings signed forward Andrei Kuzmenko to a one-year contract extension worth $4.3 million with the expectation that he would continue to perform how he did after joining the team at the trade deadline. Unfortunately, that has not been the case. Last season, Kuzmenko played 22 games with LA where he put up five goals and 12 assists for 17 points with a +6 rating. In the same amount of games played this season, he has just three goals and four assists for seven points with a -3 rating. After he scored in the first game of the month against the Devils, the 29-year-old failed to register a point the rest of November. He was also healthy scratched three times last month. Of course there is a ton of hockey to be played this season but Kuzmenko has not lived up to expectations thus far.

Dreadful Power-play

There isn't much to say about the Kings production with the man advantage, besides that it's absolutely dreadful. The Kings have a 14.1% success rate on the power-play which is good for 28th in the NHL. In their last 10 games, LA has gotten 31 power-play opportunities, scoring on just three of them. Brace yourself, because this is hard to look at. 3 for 31 equates to 9.6%. It's hard to believe a team with guys like Kempe, Fiala, Kopitar, and Byfield has struggled to score with a man advantage but here we are. Anze Kopitar leads the team with just three power-play goals.

For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.