This nightmare just doesn’t seem to be ending for the New York Rangers.
On Saturday afternoon, the Rangers were embarrassed at Madison Square Garden by losing 5-1 to the Los Angeles Kings.
From the start of the contest, New York looked completely lost.
The Kings’ five goals were the result of inexcusable defensive breakdowns by the Rangers as the team left Igor Shesterkin out to dry.
It all came to a boiling point in the second period when the Rangers allowed three goals in 2:18 minutes, leading to Peter Laviolette pulling Igor Shesterkin for Jonathan Quick.
The Rangers were lifeless. It’s one thing to get blown out, but it’s even worse to get blown out without showing any sense of urgency or intensity, and that’s exactly what happened to the Rangers.
“It’s frustrating,” said Peter Laviolette. “To start a game like that in our building after playing some of the games we have in our building, that’s bad.”
Is it a lack of effort? Is it a lack of concentration? What’s wrong with the Rangers? This team is running out of excuses and has no answers as to the root of all their problems.
“It’s all over the place,” Laviolette said of liability.
Laviolette was then asked if his players were losing focus and he simply couldn’t answer the question.
“I can’t answer that,” Laviolette said.
There is simply no fighting in the Rangers and the players know it. It’s the struggles on the ice and the noise outside that continue to derail the Blueshirts.
“Sometimes yes, but it has to be better,” Vincent Trocheck said about whether he saw enough fight from the team. “We let a lot of things take over us and we have to make sure we focus on what we’re doing and don’t let things take over us mentally, I guess.”
It took a little longer for the locker rooms to open after the game, with players potentially able to chat, but Trocheck declined to reveal what conversations were taking place after the brutal loss.
“What we say here stays here,” Trocheck said. “There’s a lot you can say, but at the end of the day, you have to perform on the ice. You have to make sure you show up and give it your all every shift, right now, I feel like we don’t do that.
The Rangers are spiraling out of control and if something isn’t fixed soon their season will spiral out of control if it hasn’t already.
