Brad Penner-Imagn Images
There aren’t many teams in the NHL who are currently down as bad as the Rangers, who have given up 30 goals while losing their past five games. The situation is dire to the point where their GM felt the need to address it in a message to the fans, but he may have triggered them close to eight years after another infamous open letter ushered in a tough stretch.
Every NHL team experiences some ups and downs over the course of the season, and the Rangers can only hope they’re currently experiencing the nadir of the current campaign based on how things have going since the new year rolled around.
The Blueshirts opened up 2026 with a win over the Panthers in the Winter Classic, but things took a turn for the worse in the wake of a 3-2 loss to the Mammoth on January 5th. Igor Shesterkin, the team’s primary goaltender, has not returned since he exited that game due to a lower-body injury, and defender Aaron Fox was also placed on injured reserve after suffering the same fate.
That loss marked the start of an ongoing five-game losing streak that’s included an embarrassing 10-2 rout at the hands of the Bruins last weekend and an 8-4 loss to the Senators on Wednesday. The Rangers have surrendered an average of six goals per game during that stretch, and they currently sit in the basement of the Metropolitan Division with 46 points and 20-22-6 record.
Their fans don’t have much to root for aside from a high draft pick when you consider their playoff chances are hovering at around 3%, and it appears they’ll have to endure a rebuild that the team’s GM swears is totally, definitely not a rebuild in a letter addressing the current woes.
Rangers fans have been subjected to yet another letter from management apologizing for their dismal play
On February 8, 2018, then-Rangers president Glen Sather and GM Jeff Gorton released the infamous document Rangers fans simply know as “The Letter” after New York fell to 25-24-5 after suffering its fourth consecutive loss.
A Message from Glen Sather and Jeff Gorton. pic.twitter.com/Q56CXS8vDc
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) February 8, 2018
Plenty of NHL teams have broadcast a rebuild to the rest of the league with trades that make it clear they have no plans to compete for a Stanley Cup in the immediate future, but Sather (who resigned from his role in the middle of the following season) and Gorton (who was replaced by current GM Chris Drury following the 2020-21 campaign) made the virtually unprecedented step to announce one.
The team ended up moving notable names including Ryan McDonagh, J.T. Miller, and Rick Nash, and they missed the playoffs four years in a row before the pieces they acquired helped them make it to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2022.
The Rangers had a first-round exit in 2023 before returning to the penultimate round last season and losing to the Panthers, but at this point, it would appear the Stanley Cup window has firmly closed on the current core.
On Friday, Drury treated Rangers fans to The Letter 2.0 in a message where he apologized for the current state of the franchise and waved the white flag while stressing the need to “be honest and realistic about our situation.”
A Message from Chris Drury to Our Fans pic.twitter.com/JVimBJ59B7
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) January 16, 2026
He asserted the team will not be undergoing a rebuild but rather a “retool” while teasing impending trades involving “great players who have brought us and our fans great moments over the years” and promising the vision will become clearer “in the coming weeks and months.”
The Rangers haven’t won the Stanley Cup since 1994, and it looks like the wait for the next one is going to be at least a few years longer.