Jonathan Quick was back in Conn Smythe mode, extending the remarkable start to his age-39 season.
If only his offense didn’t look past its prime again.
The Rangers were outplayed. They were outshot 42-19. Quick made so many of the mistakes irrelevant, single-handedly swinging momentum to give his team chances to avoid another lost night at home, but the veteran backup’s latest throwback effort was not enough, as the Rangers saw their three-game win streak snapped in a 2-1 loss to the Red Wings at Madison Square Garden.
Despite Quick’s 40 saves, the Rangers (10-8-2) fell to 1-7-1 at home, following Lucas Raymond’s NHL ’94-style wraparound goal with 3:47 remaining.
“Obviously, Quickie was unbelievable tonight,” said assistant coach David Quinn, who helped fill in for absent head coach Mike Sullivan (personal reasons). “It looked like we might be able to steal a point there as the game was evolving, and we just weren’t able to get it done.”
Six days removed from their first home win of the season, the Rangers again looked like the team that got off to the worst home start in franchise history, while getting shut out in five of seven games.
Rangers center Noah Laba (R) tries to shoot the puck past Red Wings goaltender Cam Talbot (L) in the first period at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2025.
Despite facing a team that ranked 23rd in GAA (3.28) and 27th in save percentage (.882), the Rangers barely tested their former goaltender, Cam Talbot, needing more than six minutes to record their first shot on goal, then adding one more in the next six minutes. In the final period, they were outshot 14-3.
“We just didn’t get to our game,” Rangers captain J.T. Miller said. “They did a good job of defending the looks we did get. … It wasn’t good enough. They outplayed us. If it wasn’t for Quickie, that game could’ve been wide open.”
Quick — who entered 3-1 with a 1.26 GAA and .950 save percentage — was brilliant in his first home start in more than a month.
The two-time Stanley Cup winner kept the scoreboard clean midway through the second — despite taking on twice as many shots as the Rangers produced — until a Raymond shot trickled past him and was slammed home by Detroit’s Alex DeBrincat.
Rangers center Vincent Trocheck (Bottom) tries to score during the final minutes of the game against Detroit Red Wings goaltender Cam Talbot (C) in the third period at Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers found an immediate break on a delay-of-game penalty. Following Quick’s stop of a J.T. Compher breakaway, Mika Zibanejad awoke the sold-out crowd, swooping in from the left side to push an Artemi Panarin rebound past Talbot for his seventh goal of the season, with 8:01 left in the second.
Detroit went on the power play again with 13:21 left in the third period, following a tripping penalty by Will Cuylle and had several golden scoring opportunities, but Quick stood tall.
With two seconds remaining on the penalty kill, the Rangers were whistled again for slashing on Noah Laba. Patrick Kane nearly put the Wings ahead, hitting Quick’s pad, hitting the post, then feeding Dylan Larkin, who was stoned in front. Minutes later, Quick raised the bar again, denying Raymond while sliding in a full split.
Rangers goaltender Jonathan Quick makes a save on a shot by Detroit Red Wings left wing Lucas Raymond (R) in the second period at Madison Square Garden.
“He’s one of the best to do it,” Miller said. “Every single game, he gives us a chance to win.”
When the final horn sounded, Detroit’s Mason Appleton shot on the Rangers’ empty net, prompting Quick to instigate a benches-clearing skirmish between the teams.
Only one came to fight.
“He plays with a lot of passion,” Cuylle said. “He had a big game for us, and that’s on us for not getting the win for him.”
Oliver Bonk took brief part in the Flyers’ practice today; what it means for his timeline for return and his place on the Phantoms.
Oct 1, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins left wing Brad Marchand (63) and Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Oliver Bonk (59) battle for the puck during the first period at the TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images
The Flyers are back from their quick road trip over the weekend, during which they split their back-to-back against the Blues and Stars, and after a surely much-needed day off on Sunday, they’re right back on the ice for a good practice, the first in their runway up to their next game on Thursday. And while the Flyers are working with some of the usual headlines coming out of the practice session — the shuffling of some of the forward lines, as well as an absence for Cam York which is, it seems, just for maintenance — the big news of the day is that they also have one of their top prospects returning to the ice as he works his way back from injury.
For the first time since he took an upper-body injury during rookie camp, Oliver Bonk was back on the ice with the Flyers. It’s been a long road for him, as his injury was initially thought to be more of the day-to-day variety, but it’s turned out to be more serious, keeping him out now for upwards of two months, so it’s nice to see him getting back into the mix, albeit briefly and still in that non-contact jersey.
Now, as reported by some of the boots on the ground at practice this morning, Bonk didn’t take the full practice with the NHL group, but rather came out for a bit of warmup work with the main group, and then headed over to the other ice sheet to continue with some individual rehab skating. So, it would seem that Bonk isn’t yet pounding on the door for a full return to action, but it’s encouraging all the same to see the recovery process continuing to move along nicely for him, as he gets closer to a return to playing, and eventually, his professional debut with the Phantoms.
Getting Bonk back into the mix would be a pretty significant boost for the Phantoms in terms of raising the floor of the raw skill level of the group, particularly with veteran Dennis Gilbert remaining out with injury.
This will be, though, the first time in recent memory when the Phantoms will have a surplus of bonafide AHL level talent on the right side of their defense. The Phantoms were running for much of the early part of the season with just one right-shooting AHL regular in the mix, in Helge Grans, and filling in the rest with bubble players. Now, though, between the team getting right shooting Christian Kyrou back in the trade for Samu Tuomaala last month, and getting Ethan Samson back from injury over the weekend, the Phantoms are now running a full group of at least marginally more veteran defensemen on the right side of their defense. When Bonk returns, though, this will mean the coaching staff will either have to establish some kind of platoon rotating two or more of these players in and out of the lineup — as they’ve already been doing with some of their players up front — or else move someone over to play on their off-side and push one of the bubble players (like a Berger or a Sevigny) out to prioritize the AHL regulars.
At some point, though, some kind of rotation is going to have to be established, as the Phantoms will be adding to their mix the literally just now acquired Maxence Guenette who is another righty, and with Rasmus Ristolainen also progressing through his recovery track and looking like he could be back in action before very long, the Flyers will also need to send at least one defenseman back down to the Phantoms to make space to activate him, so their surplus of players will grow even more significant. This isn’t an impossible situation that they’ll eventually find themselves in, but it will be a challenging one, as they work to strike the balance between fairness and optimizing their lineup to best help them secure wins.
All of this said, though, Bonk is going to get games. Not just because he needs to — as one of the organization’s top prospects and one who needs reps at the pro level to advance his development — but because his game is one which can offer a lot to the team, once he’s able to really get going. His details focused, well-rounded style of play is one which should lend him some versatility in that lineup, as he could be a good stylistic fit with just about any of the other pieces on the back end. His ability to move the puck cleanly and with some pace will also be an element of his game which will work particularly well within the Phantoms’ game plan, as they’re shifting their play style to a more uptempo transitioning team.
And on top of that, while Kyrou has been carving out a nice role for himself running the Phantoms’ top power play unit, the spot (or spots) on the second unit have been a little less locked down, as the Phantoms are still looking for the right mix, and Bonk could quite easily see himself sliding into a role there to help round out the second unit, building up from some success found in a similar role at the junior level.
Of course, ultimately it will take him some time to work himself up to speed and adjust enough to the professional game where he can again get to the top of his game, just like every other rookie in the league, but the Phantoms are running a system which should support his growing game nicely.