The Rangers were oddly positive after their unsettling 5-2 loss to the Blackhawks on Saturday night, which is likely all they could do to handle their current state.
Maybe it was a coping mechanism. Or maybe it was a way of salvaging what’s left of their confidence. Either way, the Rangers are grasping at straws to justify the belief that their season is far from over and that they are still capable of rewriting the narrative.
With 56 games left in the regular season, it’s certainly possible, but it’s going to take a total team turnaround for the Rangers — currently 11-10-5 and in fifth place in the Metropolitan Division heading into Sunday — to catch up in the standings.
The Rangers, who are 14 points behind the division-leading Devils and out of a playoff spot, are slipping further into a puzzling storyline. The team that took the NHL by storm last season, when they finished second in the Metro and made it all the way to the conference final, is suddenly falling from grace in an inexplicable fashion.
Perhaps that’s why head coach Gerard Gallant and Chris Kreider both wanted to highlight the good Saturday night.
“I thought we played faster and played harder, but same result,” Gallant said after the Rangers lost for the fifth time in six games and were defeated by the last-place Blackhawks after losing to the last-place Senators twice in three days. “So we’ve got to make some adjustments, but we definitely played harder than we did the other night.”
Added Kreider: “It’s hard to lose a game like that and say that we’re doing some things well, but we’re certainly doing things better than we have been. You go through tough stretches over the course of a season. Obviously, we’re going through a very tough stretch right now. So, it’s up to us to flip the narrative and look back on this in a month or two and say that this was a good thing for us and that we started stringing together wins. Now, it’s the next game.”
Maybe there is such a thing as a playoff hangover. The emotional drop-off from competing last season in meaningful games night after night to starting over and being back at square one could have an effect on a team’s psyche.
The Rangers might be able to say that if they had made it to the Stanley Cup Final, Artemi Panarin told The Post when presented with the notion, but they didn’t.
Before the Rangers took the ice against Chicago, Gallant called for his team to play with more urgency and energy, adding that he hadn’t seen that lately. But such play hasn’t been there since the first game of the season, in which the Rangers looked primed to pick up right where they left off last season, as they handily defeated the Lightning, 3-1.
Since then, however, the passion and heart that once exuded from their play seemingly has vanished. It has been replaced with frustration and a joyless style that makes every game feel like a chore. Ringing pucks off the post several times a night is only causing the Rangers to sink further into themselves as they search for answers.
Rangers captain Jacob Trouba took a much different route than everybody else when reflecting on the game Saturday night. Maybe the rest of the club should follow suit.
“It’s a results league,” Trouba said. “You need to win hockey games. It’s an emotional game. You’ve got to play with some emotion, some energy. It’s not just going to happen. You’ve got to go make it happen and will it to happen. I think we could use a little bit more of that.”
The Rangers sent center Jonny Brodzinski back to AHL Hartford on Sunday.