New York played without centers Vincent Trocheck and Sam Carrick. They were scratched for roster management purposes with the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline at 3 p.m ET Friday.
“It’s tough, it’s tough,” Lafreniere said. “You play with guys for two to five years or whatever, you get close to them and every time you lose friends it (stinks). But all we can do is keep playing and try to get wins.”
Matias Maccelli and Easton Cowan scored, and Joseph Woll made 18 saves for the Maple Leafs (27-25-11), who have lost six consecutive games (0-4-2).
“You’ve got to just stick with the plan, and we don't, and this is what happens,” Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “Give up odd man rushes in the third. Never gave up one in the whole game and then we give up, I don't know, two or three that period, and it's in our net a couple times. And then in the third period, it's just a commitment to doing things hard and blocking shots and things like that. And we didn't do it, and they scored.”
Toronto traded center Nicolas Roy to the Colorado Avalanche earlier Thursday. Forwards Bobby McMann and Scott Laughton, and defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson were scratched for the second straight game for roster management purposes.
“It’s tough every year and obviously when you’re in this situation and you might be parting with guys it can definitely weigh on the team and individuals,” Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews said. “It’s the tough part of the business.”
Maccelli scored 13 seconds into the game to give Toronto a 1-0 lead.
“I wish I had an answer for that, but also I understand,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. “This is not an easy circumstance. We don’t play ‘Troch’, Sam, all this happens today and these guys are a close-knit group, they’re friends, they’re teammates and it affects people. We’re trying to do our best to focus on the task at hand. I thought we grabbed a hold of it after that.”
Cuylle made it 1-1 with a netfront tip of Braden Schneider’s one-timer from the right point at 6:45.
Toronto regained the lead at 5:27 of the second, when Cowan scored from the top of the left face-off circle to make it 2-1.
The Rangers tied it 2-2 with Gavrikov scoring a power-play goal off a rebound of Taylor Raddysh’s shot at 7:29.
“I thought the first 40 minutes was pretty solid and we’re right there,” Matthews said. “On the second leg of a back-to-back I thought we had some good jump. They’ve got some skill on that side. They play a really good transition game. I just thought we had kind of five minutes of bad breaks, bad decisions, bad reads and the puck ends up in the back of your net a couple times.”
Lafreniere gave the Rangers a 3-2 lead at 5:38 of the third period by getting a piece of Zibanejad’s shot from the point, knocking it down and past Woll.
