It is one thing for the lineup not to be good enough, another for Henrik Lundqvist not to be good enough, and yet another thing altogether for the effort not to be good enough.
Yet that represents the dubious trifecta achieved by the Rangers in New Jersey in a lifeless performance on Saturday night during which they were outworked, outplayed and outscored, 4-0, by a desperate Devils team that recorded its first victory of the season after seven fruitless tries.
Cory Schneider was forced to confront just 22 shots in recording one of the most pedestrian shutouts in franchise history. The Devils, who at 1-4-3 actually hopscotched over the 2-5-0 Rangers in the standings, directed just 19 shots on Lundqvist, who was not up to the task.
“I need to come up with the one save to give the team a little more confidence,” said Lundqvist, who has allowed four or more goals in four of his six starts after allowing that many four times in 43 starts last year. “The way things are going for us, it’s tough to fall behind.
“It starts with me, I have to be better and give confidence to the group. In [the 2-0 victory in] Washington, I helped us get the lead,” he said. “I know it’s there. I showed it the other night.”
Andrei Loktionov scored the first goal at 7:22 off a juicy rebound served up at the left porch. Adam Henrique blasted one past Lundqvist short side from the left circle at 12:37, the goaltender seemingly having lost his bearings in losing his angle.
The Devils, who scored three goals on six shots and all four within nine shots in a span bridging the opening two periods, never were forced to break a sweat in protecting the shutout, never mind the lead.
The Rangers were passive, a team with a boatload of passengers on a night when desperation was necessary but absent pretty much from start to finish.
“We didn’t have a strong enough push-back offensively,” said coach Alain Vigneault, a master of the obvious and the understatement on this night. “We need to have a better push-back when the other team scores one or two goals against us.”
Push-back? How about pushing it at all? True, the Blueshirts presented a depleted frontline in the absence of Rick Nash (concussion), Ryan Callahan (broken thumb) and Carl Hagelin (shoulder surgery). But that’s no excuse at all considering the Devils played without Patrik Elias (flu), Ryane Clowe (suspected concussion) and Damien Brunner (upper body issue).
“I don’t think it was a disaster the way a couple of the games were on the West Coast, but we didn’t generate very much,” Brian Boyle said. “Just because we won one game the other night is no reason not to play with that same desperation, and we didn’t.”
The Rangers have been outscored 29-11 overall and 19-5 playing five-on-five. They have been shut out twice. They have lost three games by four or more goals and a fourth by three goals.
And yes, the Blueshirts are in a 9-1-1 mode for goal-scorers, but the situation wouldn’t seem so dire if they could get more from, say, Derek Stepan and Derick Brassard, not to mention Mats Zuccarello and Benoit Pouliot.
The substandard play of first-pair defensemen Dan Girardi and Ryan McDonagh is of at least equal concern. Both have struggled through the first seven games, Girardi more notably than his partner. If coverage isn’t an issue, then the break-out surely is.
Girardi and McDonagh need to be staples of strength if the Rangers are going to have a chance — with or without Nash, Callahan and Girardi. And of course, the same holds true regarding Lundqvist, who came into the match with a 28-12-5 lifetime record and a 1.77 GAA against New Jersey and came out of it without his crown.
Lack of goals. Lack of effort. Lack of Lundqvist.
A dubious trifecta for the Rangers.