NHL

Rangers fall to lowly Flyers, into tie for eighth

PHILADELPHIA — The route to the playoffs has become more complex for the Rangers, who inexplicably could not deliver a 60-minute performance at a time of year when nothing less is required.

As such, the Blueshirts fell 4-2 last night to the 12th-place Flyers to fall into a numerical tie for eighth-place with Winnipeg with 46 points, though the Rangers have six games remaining to the Jets’ five.

The defeat also pushed the Rangers three points behind the seventh-place Islanders, while also holding a game in hand on the suburbanites, who play their final five games on the road.

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“We have to approach each game as if it is the last game of the season; it’s that important,” Henrik Lundqvist said. “We have to put in everything we’ve got every night.

“We have to respect the fact that every point can make the difference.”

The Rangers most certainly did not come with full force throughout a first period in which they were sloppy, uninspired, outplayed and outscored 2-0.

The forecheck was a whisper, their coverage against the rush was dreadful. Why? How could it be? No Ranger seemed to know.

“I cannot explain it,” said a downcast Brad Richards, who sat alone for minutes with his head bowed in the postgame locker room before he was joined by Ryan McDonagh. “It’s tough to figure.”

It was both inexcusable and impossible for the Blueshirts to overcome, regardless of the manner through which they dominated most of the final 40 minutes, pressuring the Flyers and goaltender Steve Mason, who made 38 saves in his home debut after his acquisition from the Blue Jackets at the April 3 trade deadline.

The Blueshirts outshot Philadelphia 17-4 in the third, the Flyers clinching it on the Jakub Voracek empty-netter at 19:46, but even then, the Rangers produced only two shots in the final 7:42, Mason was not forced to make a save after the 14:26 mark.

If the Rangers started poorly, yielding a goal at 9:28 to Brayden Schenn and another at 17:21 to Erik Gustafsson on coverage breakdowns before steadying themselves, the power play was dysfunctional all night long, failing on five full opportunities covering 10 minutes.

Rick Nash, who led the forwards with 22:54 of ice, was pulled off the first power play unit beginning with the first try at 13:00 of the first, replaced by Derick Brassard. The odd move did not help in the slightest, the Rangers generating eight shots with the man-advantage in falling to 0-for-14 over their last four matches.

Coach John Tortorella and his team went the final two periods without Brian Boyle, who left the ice with an apparent leg injury at the 14:03 mark of the first and did not return. Boyle’s status for tomorrow night’s match at the Garden against the Panthers is unknown.

The Rangers twice did respond to come within a goal, first cutting the margin to 2-1 at 9:54 of the second when Mats Zuccarello scored his first of the year in nine NHL games.

And then, after Kimmo Timonen got a Flyers’ power play goal at 10:00 of the second on a left wing screamer following Claude Giroux’s clean left circle faceoff win against Richards, the Blueshirts made it 3-2 at 7:28 of the third on a score by Derek Stepan.

But that was that. The Rangers owned the puck in the third, setting up permanent residence below the hash marks in the Flyers’ zone, but came up empty.

And the question, again, was what took so long for the team to assert itself? What took so long for the Rangers to play with desperation?

“There’s no excuse for us not taking it to them from the start,” said Dan Girardi. “We should have been all over them and jumped them early.”

Should have, but didn’t. As such, the route to the playoffs has become more complex.