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Why aggressive start for Mika Zibanejad fuels hope for Rangers rebound
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- Why aggressive start for Mika Zibanejad fuels hope for Rangers rebound
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The New York Rangers are a better hockey team when Mika Zibanejad is fully engaged and playing with confidence.
Through four games of the 2025-26 season, they've been treated to an aggressive and assertive version of the 32-year-old forward. It's exactly the start you'd hope for from a foundational player in desperate need of a bounce-back season.
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"I think Mika has been terrific," coach Mike Sullivan offered Sunday . "He's all over the ice, he drives offense, he defends hard."
Zibanejad seeks to erase a lackluster 2024-25 campaign, when he mustered just 20 goals and 62 points, despite playing all 82 games. His per-game offensive rates were his lowest in New York since 2017-18, his age-24 season.
It extended a troubling trend from the season prior, when Zibanejad's production dipped by 19 points after a career-best 91-point campaign in 2022-23.
Once tabbed as the top-line center of a Rangers core built for a Stanley Cup run, Zibanejad hasn't quite lived up to that billing — at least, not consistently. His blistering shot and two-way game are undeniable, but too often he's faded into the periphery of New York's attack. Worse, his terrible body language and questionable effort at points last season were alarming and clearly affected the rest of the team.
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That hasn't been the case thus far in 2025-26. The sample size is small, just one week into the regular-season schedule, but Zibanejad has been one of New York's most noticeable forwards. In the best of ways.
Zibanejad leads all Rangers skaters with 16 shots-on-goal through four games, and paced the team in three of the four contests.
It's not yet reflected in the box score, though. Zibanejad has just one point, a short-handed goal on Saturday against the Pittsburgh Penguins that moved him past Mark Messier for eighth on the franchise's all-time goal-scoring list with 251.
He was awfully close to netting a second one Sunday, when the right-catching Charlie Lindgren made an improbable save on a Zibanejad one-timer off a 2-on-1 rush with Artemi Panarin .
"I'm confident I can say I score that eight of 10 [times], nine out of 10," Zibanejad told Peter Baugh of The Athletic after the 1-0 loss to the Capitals . "He made a lot of good saves."
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Lindgren made another quality stop later in the second period, denying Zibanejad on an open look from the slot during one of New York's two power plays. With high-quality chances like that, it should translate to the stat sheet sooner rather than later. Zibanejad had seven shot attempts Sunday, each one on goal.
Why Rangers need complete version of Mika Zibanejad
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More importantly, Zibanejad is finding ways to create offensive opportunities consistently, whether that be on the wing next to J.T. Miller , where he started the season, or centering for Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere in place of the injured Vincent Trocheck . In fact, Sullivan credits him as the driving force of that new-look line.
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"He's a very cerebral player, he has a high hockey IQ, he's always in the right spots, but I think he's added another level of physicality to his game on both sides of the puck that make him hard to play against," New York's new head coach explained. "I think right now he's driving that line."
Sullivan revealed that, before training camp, he and his staff challenged Zibanejad to be more physical. The veteran answered the bell so far, gravitating towards the slot area on offense and embracing a more aggressive playstyle defensively.
As a cherry on top, Zibanejad won 58 percent of his face-offs to open the season, a welcome lift with New York's top face-off man, Trocheck, week to week with an upper body injury.
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Whether he stays at center or slides back over to wing when Trocheck returns, the Rangers need Zibanejad to be an active presence, one who initiates and dictates play at both ends of the rink. Even with some struggles 5v5 over the past two seasons, he remains a prominent option on New York's top power-play unit and an integral piece on one of the best penalty kills in the NHL.
Zibanejad's oscillating play made him a polarizing figure in the eyes of fans, but unless the Rangers can get him to waive a no-movement clause that runs through 2029-30, he's in New York for the long haul. He has an $8.5 million average annual value (AAV) contract , that can seem quite the burden — but it's not if Zibanejad recaptures the dominance that not long ago made him one of the League's top centermen.
A long season awaits, with plenty more games needed before anyone annoints a resurgence or a return to stardom. For now, it's simply a promising first step that rekindles hope in one of the Rangers' most important players .
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