The New York Rangers had a chance to break out of their slump against a struggling Nashville Predators team, but couldn’t take advantage en route to a 2-0 loss on Tuesday night.
The Rangers had a good start to the first half. Unfortunately, this was short-lived.
A sloppy defensive breakdown led to a Jonathan Marchessault goal and the Rangers ultimately couldn’t recover.
While New York played a more structured game and had their offensive moments, they were unable to generate enough high-quality scoring chances and the team felt a little disjointed from a certain way.
In the third period, trailing by one goal, the Rangers did not show a sense of urgency, which frustrated Peter Laviolette.
“What I didn’t like was the third period,” Laviolette said. “I thought they had the advantage over us. We needed more in the third when you were leading 1-0. That’s when you have to find a way out of something and that’s where we’re not succeeding at the moment.
Rangers have now lost 11 of their last 14 games. The frustration continues to grow as these losses pile up.
“Our goal is to win, so when you don’t win, it’s frustrating,” Laviolette said. “We have to find our way and we have to do it quickly.”
Laviolette adopted a more aggressive tone after the match as the players sent a positive message.
Chris Kreider believes the Rangers need to start simplifying things if they want to get back on track.
“I think the most important thing is to take it one game at a time,” Kreider said. “Win a match. Take some of the things we did well, learn from our mistakes and build.
“If we continue to talk about it, we will stay there. We are not the team we were yesterday, we are not the team we were two days ago, we have an opportunity to win the next game, so take what we can from this game, move forward and win the next match.
The Rangers will be back in action Friday night against the Dallas Stars.
