BUFFALO — Slim just rode out of town.
There are three games to go and beginning tonight at the Garden against Toronto, the Rangers will play them without a margin for error in their quest to make the playoffs after last night’s 5-2 debacle of a defeat to a Sabres team that was a step up in class.
These weren’t the deficient Islanders, the lousy Lightning or the inept Panthers, the victims in the three-game winning streak the Blueshirts carried into the match. These, rather, were the Northeast champions clinching their division, even without the injured Thomas Vanek, Tim Connolly, Patrick Kaleta and Craig Rivet.
“When you play a better team your mistakes are more obvious,” Henrik Lundqvist, pulled on the short end of a 3-2 score at 5:17 of the second, told The Post. “Sometimes you can get away with mistakes, but the better teams make you pay.
“Maybe they just exposed us a little more.”
It was northern exposure attempting to defend against the rush all night long. The Rangers committed numerous turnovers in dangerous areas in or attempting to gain the offensive zone. They were trapped below the offensive goal line, yielding a flurry of odd-man rushes against which defenders simply backed in and then watched without taking anyone.
“The way their defense jumped in, it caused confusion,” said Dan Girardi. “I thought the effort was there for the most part, but I don’t really know what happened.”
It is true the Rangers remain in control of their own destiny, for a victory over the Maple Leafs combined with a sweep of the concluding home-and-home with the Flyers (including at least one in regulation) will clinch a fifth straight playoff appearance.
But it is also true that a regulation loss tonight coupled with a Boston victory at home tomorrow night against the Sabres will eliminate the Rangers before they can get to that prospective last-chance last dance with the Flyers.
“Obviously we would like to have won this, but we still control our own destiny,” said Aaron Voros. “It would be different if we needed help.”
The Rangers, sloppy all game, will need to help themselves, especially if Tortorella can’t help himself from cutting down to two lines for stretches, as he did during the second period. With Ryan Callahan (knee) back after a four-game absence, the coach stopped rolling his lines.
It was same old, same old, same old. The same kind of same-old as the coach using his post-game press briefing to insist that the Rangers actually hadn’t played that poorly even if portrayed otherwise in the papers.
Fact is, the Blueshirts were careless throughout. Double-shifted, Marian Gaborik — robbed point blank by Ryan Miller in his bid to tie it at 3-3 at 9:17 of the second — and Erik Christensen were caught before going off for a change as the Sabres swept the other way for the Toni Lydman goal that made it 4-2 at 13:22 of the second.
Tortorella, who claims to decry negativity, pointed his finger at the forwards for a “God-awful change,” though they were trapped so deep, the change was irrelevant. The coach said he felt that Lundqvist, “needed to come out,” after yielding three first-shot scores, though he would not elaborate.
“I was a little surprised,” said The King. “But at the same time, it’s [Tortorella’s] call and I just have to deal with it.”
Beginning tonight, with no margin for error.