If there is no such thing as a bad win in the NHL, there is such a thing as a bad loss.
Of which the Rangers’ 3-1 empty net-inflated defeat to the Senators last night at the Garden most certainly qualifies as Exhibit A.
For the Rangers, 9-4 in their previous 13 games, never could get plugged into the match they finally surrendered when Chris Kelly got his second of three in the game with 2:24 remaining by banging in Jarkko Ruutu’s centering feed at the right porch when the defending team didn’t defend.
“I want to come up with that save and help the team get a point, at least,” said a frustrated Henrik Lundqvist, ultimately defenseless on the winner when Erik Christensen blew his coverage assignment. “It’s hard to be satisfied when you can’t make that stop at the end.”
If the result were painful, it was also just. If the Rangers didn’t defend well enough with the game on the line, neither did they attack well enough from start to finish, rarely getting the puck in deep, rarely forcing the Senators to contend with their down-low cycle game, rarely forcing the Senators at all.
There is more life in a wax museum after closing than there was in the Rangers most of the match, during which coach John Tortorella was forced to call a timeout just 4:09 in. The Blueshirts were Deadheads, even if Jerry Garcia was a scratch.
The team about which Marc Staal had said with pride on Friday “is always ready to play,” wasn’t. The Rangers don’t get off the hook for that, even if they were more engaged over the final 40 minutes … or at least the first 37:36 of those final two periods.
“I don’t think we had the energy or intensity we needed in the first period,” said Ryan Callahan. “I think we picked it up after that but we definitely have to be better than that.
“I don’t know why it happened, we prepared the same way mentally and physically, but there is no excuse for it.”
Eliminating the 6-5 victory at the Coliseum on Thursday, the Rangers scored a sum of four goals (including an empty-netter) in their three other games during the week. They lost 3-1 to Pittsburgh on Monday, beat the Islanders 2-0 (with the ENG) on Friday, and then got one yesterday, a second-period short-handed score from Brandon Prust.
Marian Gaborik, minus three, was limited to one shot in 21:11 as his line with Christensen and Sean Avery had trouble creating. Indeed, it was The Great Gabby’s bad power-play pass from the right corner that jumped over Derek Stepan’s stick at the right point that sent Kelly away for Ottawa’s shorthanded goal at 4:27 that opened the scoring and ended the Senators’ scoreless streak at a franchise record 202:57.
“I have to make a better pass to Step there,” Gaborik said. “As a line, our strength is to get the puck deep and forecheck, and we have to do a better job on those.”
Though going 0-for-4 on the power play while generating three shots in 8:00 on the man-advantage — all three shots on the final power play — and failing on two power plays 2:33 apart early in the third, Tortorella said he thought the unit produced “good looks.”
The fact is, however, there was nothing good looking about this one.