It was another downer for and from the Rangers, whose 3-1 loss to the Wild at the Garden last night has left the club as far down in the standings as it’s been since Dec. 11.
They’re now the eight-place Rangers following their third straight loss in regulation on a three-game homestand during which they scored a total of four goals. More meaningfully, they’re two points away from being the ninth-place Rangers, their lead over the Sabres sliced to two points and with Buffalo owning three games in hand.
“It would be a lie if I said this isn’t starting to wear on us,” Brandon Dubinsky said after the Rangers outshot the Wild 41-19 while owning a 77-35 advantage in shot attempts. “I’m tired of saying we controlled the game and played well.
“It’s all about results,” he said. “This is a results business. And we are not getting results.”
The Rangers are 4-10-1 in their past 15 games, 11-15-2 since the calendar flipped to 2011. They have lost four straight in regulation at the Garden, where they’re 3-8-1 in the past dozen and have slipped to a ghastly 14-16-3 on the season.
The Rangers have lost eight straight in regulation when trailing after two periods and nine straight in regulation when scoring two goals or fewer, as they have done in 21 of their past 28 games going into tonight’s match in Ottawa against the horrid Senators.
“I think it will be key to stay positive and confident,” said Henrik Lundqvist, who played well but surrendered a third goal for the 10th time in his last 13 starts. “But it’s tough.”
The Rangers took a 1-0 lead just 3:13 into the match on Sean Avery’s first goal since Jan. 8. But despite controlling play, they couldn’t add to the lead, able to get one shot on Jose Theodore while failing on two first-period power plays. They were down 2-1 after two.
“We need to make a key play at a key time and up 1-0 with 4:00 in power play time, that was it,” John Tortorella said. “That was a key momentum swing. We kept them in it.”
The Vinny Prospal-Erik Christensen-Ryan Callahan first power-play unit has done next to nothing in five games, yet the coach keeps sending the trio out there. Neither Mats Zuccarello nor Derek Stepan created much at all while playing the point, yet they keep going out there.
Tortorella has continued to ride the Zuccarello-Stepan-Wojtek Wolski line, even it has struggled in five of six games — all but the 6-0 walkover in Washington on Friday — since being reunited. Zuccarello has gone 18 straight without a goal, and Wolski has recorded two in his past 16 games.
At the other end, Lundqvist was beaten on three deflections, which makes five in the past two games after the Sabres got two that way in Tuesday’s 2-1 affair.
Rangers defensemen are with their men, but they’re not taking them or their sticks, which is kind of like a car rental agency taking reservations but not keeping them.
“We’re making the same mistakes on the goals we’re giving up,” said Dubinsky, scoreless in nine straight. “We can’t let that become a habit.”
Where the Rangers habitually found ways to win the first three months, they have habitually come up short the past nine weeks. They have become a downer.
For their own sake, they better not have bottomed out.