If the New York Rangers’ recent road trip was a measuring stick of sorts, they fell woefully short.
On Monday, the Blueshirts return home to Madison Square Garden to face a red-hot Florida Panthers team that is 10-0-1 over their first 11 games after going 1-1-2 out west.
What began promisingly enough with a 3-1 victory over the Seattle Kraken took a noticeable downturn as it was followed by a 3-2 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks before it all came undone.
The Rangers have allowed six goals in each of their last two games — first blowing a 4-1 second-period lead to the Edmonton Oilers in a 6-5 overtime loss before getting run out of Calgary on Saturday night in a 6-0 drubbing against the Flames.
In each of those two losses, the Rangers allowed three goals in the third period, seemingly shutting off when it matters most.
It’s a major reason why the Rangers have just two wins in six against teams with records over .500 this season.
“We’ve talked about it. We haven’t beaten the Edmonton’s or the Calgary’s of the world,” veteran forward Chris Kreider said. “We gave ourselves a chance the other night against Edmonton, got away from our game, I don’t know if we got bored with doing the simple things. And then tonight [we] didn’t trust the system when we were down 3-0 and the wheels fall off.”
Attention to detail is one of the toughest things to drill into a rebuilding team, especially with a first-year head coach in Gerard Gallant that is trying to institute a tough, gritty game to complement an abundance of skill and finesse toward the top of the depth chart.
It’s put an added strain on goaltender Igor Shesterkin, who has undoubtedly been the Rangers’ most valuable player this season — but nights like Saturday will become more commonplace if the Rangers continue struggling to put together a consistent 60 minutes of play.
“Igor has been our best player and has carried us to this point and for us to do that to him… is unacceptable,” Kreider added.
It’s left Gallant with plenty of questions to answer, though he’s hoping this can all be chalked up to being away from home.
“I hope that’s what it was,’’ Gallant said. “We were obviously pretty bad… it’s been a grind. I’m glad we’re done playing Calgary, put it that way.’’
