ST. LOUIS — To understand where the Rangers are at, to comprehend how low things actually have gotten, know that there was real and substantial progress made Saturday night at the Scottrade Center, where they lost to the Blues, 5-3.
It was a night when, for swaths of time, the Blueshirts looked like a team that was moderately on the same page, that was focused on playing a simple game because, well, that’s all they trusted themselves to do.
“The second period was the best we’ve played all year. By far,” Brad Richards said after another good performance, scoring his fourth goal of the season late in the second to cut the Blues lead to 3-2.
Unfortunately for the Rangers, that second period they outshot the Blues, 13-5 — and were still outscored, 3-1.
“We did a lot of things we talked about prior to the game,” said coach Alain Vigneault, who started the game with backup goalie Martin Biron in net but replaced him with Henrik Lundqvist to start the third period, already down 4-2. “In the third, we just ran out of gas. Four games in six nights, you could tell the effort was there, the willingness was there, but the legs were having a tough time.”
All of those good things were, in the end, outnumbered by those moments when they looked like the same disjointed, often confused and fumbling team that had been outscored 15-2 in the past two games, humbled along the bumpy road to finding stability in Vigneault’s new system that still seems to be too different to fully grasp just yet.
“I thought that was the hardest game we played competing-wise, battle-wise and system-wise — we have to stay out of the box,” said captain Ryan Callahan, who scored his first two goals of the season, both on the power play, the second coming 2:54 into the third period to cut the Blues’ lead to 4-3.
“That game could have gone either way,” Callahan continued, “and we have to look at it that way. It’s been a hard road trip, but we played the right way today.”
Just when the Rangers (1-3-0) thought they were going to take some momentum, they would give it back to the Blues (4-0-0) with sloppy play — including three penalties from Derek Dorsett and two from defenseman Justin Falk, playing his first game as a Ranger as a seventh defenseman.
But just when it looked like the Rangers were going to seize momentum — when Richards forced a turnover then scored on a one-timed rebound — things managed to fall apart. It took just 1:31 until Rangers rookie Jesper Fast was found pointing at St. Louis captain David Backes as he flew passed him on a blown coverage and toward the Rangers net, where Backes tipped in his second goal of the night to regain a two-goal lead, 4-2.
“It’s a simple read by the D’s and I’m not sure what happened,” Vigneault said. “We’ll ask them on Monday. Those are reads that good players can make and they’re good defensemen, so we’ll find out.”
By the time Vladimir Tarasenko scored for the Blues on a third-period power play to make it 5-3, the Rangers knew this was going to be a victory in spirit only. Heading home for a couple days before this nine-game, season-opening road trip continues Wednesday night in Washington against the Capitals, the Rangers are aware that things got better by virtue of them not being able to get any worse.
“I thought we responded well after two poor games,” Callahan said.
“I think we have to take the positives out of this, a tough road trip, and get back to work.”