ANAHEIM, Calif. — They are all costly now, every single Rangers’ defeat in what has become a desperate battle to hold off the Sabres and Hurricanes and thus return to the playoffs after a one-year absence.
And defeats are far more difficult to accept when the team is outworked, as the Rangers themselves admitted was the case in last night’s 5-2 loss to the Ducks that leaves the seventh-place team two points ahead of eighth-place Buffalo. The Sabres have 16 games remaining opposed to New York’s 13. The Rangers are two points ahead of ninth-place Carolina, which has 15 to go.
Though the Rangers have 35 victories to the Hurricanes’ 31, the Rangers have just a 28-27 edge in the tie-break that subtracts shootout wins. The Rangers lost the season series to Carolina in the second tie-break.
“There were some bad bounces, but it comes down to that we didn’t play hard enough, weren’t hard enough on the puck,” said Ryan Callahan, who like linemate Brandon Dubinsky was minus-4 and on the ice for all five Anaheim goals. “There’s no excuse for it.”
There were turnovers and bad decisions all over the ice that kept the Rangers on the run in front of Henrik Lundqvist who, if not for bad luck, would have had no luck at all. Indeed, that would apply to the entire squad, but then luck is most often earned.
And it wasn’t bad luck that allowed the Ducks’ formidable Bobby Ryan-Ryan Getzlaf-Corey Perry unit to take advantage of loads of time and an equal amount of space to shred the Rangers.
“We [stunk],” coach John Tortorella said. “What were we missing? Everything.
“We had some passengers and some guys testing the water. We haven’t played that way too often and we’ll bounce back, but it’s a tough way to play at this time of year.”
Lundqvist was seething after the contest in which the Ducks’ three first-period goals were fluky. But there was nothing fluky about the Rangers’ inability to sustain a forecheck or keep Anaheim pinned for more than a handful of shifts.
“They got a couple of lucky goals, but there’s no excuse,” The King said. “We have to be better, and I have to be better.”
Though he scored a third-period power-play goal, Marian Gaborik struggled through 14:48 in his second game after a six-game, concussion-induced absence. Gaborik has found himself on what essentially is his team’s fourth line with Vinny Prospal and Sean Avery.
The combinations, if not the personnel, probably will change for Saturday night’s match in San Jose, with Tortorella very likely to move Prospal from the middle to the wing while reinserting Erik Christensen into the lineup after two consecutive scratches at the expense of Avery, who got only 8:28 of ice and did not get on after the 8:48 mark of the third.
Avery committed a couple of offensive zone turnovers — who didn’t? — but hardly was to blame for the Rangers’ top players inability to match Anaheim’s top talents. With the Rangers unable to get the puck in deep and then lax in puck support and back pressure, the gaps were wide and the defensemen consistently on the retreat.
Marc Staal went minus-3 as did partner Dan Girardi, who said, “The effort wasn’t nearly good enough.”
The effort wasn’t good enough and neither were the Rangers. And so it’s onto San Jose as the chase becomes more desperate.
Presumably the Rangers will be more desperate as well.