If the Rangers’ 4-3 shootout loss to the Islanders on Friday didn’t represent an entirely lost night, neither did it set them on the path to finding themselves in this time of pre-deadline adversity.
“It’s not the game we wanted to play,” captain Ryan Callahan said after the Nassau Coliseum match in which the Rangers fell behind 2-0 within the first 8:42 then were unable to get the victory after tying it 3-3 at the 16:40 of the second. “We have to kick it up a notch and find the next level.”
Actually, it’s not even the inability of the Rangers to kick it up a notch that has proved deadly in losing three of four (1-2-1) for the first time since late October, when the team went 1-2-1 in games six through nine.
It’s the Rangers’ inability to maintain the level they established through the middle of this month; the failure to consistently win battles, to establish a ground game, to eliminate careless mistakes and the odd-man rushes against that suddenly have become an issue with the trade deadline set for Monday and the audio volume about acquiring Rick Nash at a steady hum.
“We have to focus on ourselves, not how other teams are going to react to us because we’re in the first place,” said Martin Biron, who lost a 2-1 shootout when Matt Moulson scored in the top of the fourth before Evgeni Nabokov stopped John Mitchell. “We should set the bar for ourselves.“I came into this game wanting to win 2-0 or 3-1, I didn’t want to give up three goals and win in a shootout. We should all want to play to our top level regardless of whether teams are gunning for us.”
Biron — who made a huge breakaway save on Michael Grabner midway through the second to hold the deficit to 3-1 just over a minute before Marian Gaborik scored on a breakaway of his own — has surrendered at least three goals in each of his last four starts. The Rangers, whose decision-making was faulty all over the ice, are just 5-10-5 when allowing more than two goals.
Maybe the pressing issue isn’t getting the gunner to add the fourth goal. Maybe the more immediate need is to acquire a defenseman, especially with Anton Stralman in descent.
But then, if general manager Glen Sather is willing to come more than halfway in meeting Columbus’ demands for Nash, and that probably means including Tim Erixon and/or J.T. Miller in the package going the other way, the scorer may be the more readily attainable commodity.
Coach John Tortorella was less than impressed with his team, even while acknowledging that the Rangers deserve credit for earning the point. He was disturbed to learn that certain players expressed the thought that the start wasn’t as bad as some of the ones that preceded it during the recent stretch, a sentiment expressed by Callahan, for one.
Tortorella also was less than cheerful to hear that some players, Brian Boyle for one, didn’t know it was against the rules to throw a stick to a teammate after it had been lost. That was what Michael Del Zotto was penalized for doing in trying to get Boyle’s stick back to him at 6:29 of the second.
“That’s interesting. I’d like to know who said that [about our starts],” Tortorella said. “And yes, Michael should know that’s a penalty. … They should know that.
“We’re one sloppy hockey club right now. We need to be sharper. We have to figure this out and get out of it quickly.”
By tonight, he means, when the Sabres are at the Garden.