There is not enough time for this to disappear, nothing that can happen over the final four games remaining in the regular season for the Rangers at the Garden that can eliminate the creeping suspicion they are one team on Broadway and another off it.
Because it’s more than just the 4-3 shootout loss to the Panthers on Friday at the Garden, and more than the 0-4-2 record at home over the previous six games.
What will remain a constant when the playoffs start and they eventually play a postseason game in front of these fans is that the Rangers (44-24-3) have had a debilitating tendency — no matter how conscious or unconscious it may be — to make things more complicated than necessary in front of the celebrities sitting in the rows immediately behind their bench, plus those faithful sitting way above it. What that has led to is an inability to close games out, and a penchant for putting together incomplete performances that aren’t good enough for March, let alone May or June.
“It seems like we play straight lines on the road,” said Rick Nash, who did all he could to get to the front of the net and dirty his jersey — including taking an unpenalized punch to the face from Alex Petrovic late in the third period. “At home, we try to make the cute plays and not get as many shots on net. We’re trying to bring that road game home.”
And try as they may, the Rangers are now 19-15-3 at the Garden, while carrying a league-best 25-9-0 ledger on the road.
“We’re the best road team in the league and have been for a while,” said J.T. Miller, who got his 20th goal of the year 4:11 into the first period when he beat goalie James Reimer between the legs, giving his team an early 2-0 lead after Mats Zuccarello scored the first of his two goals on a power play 2:34 in.
“We have to make it harder on teams coming into this building,” Miller said.
So after Aleksander Barkov was the only player on either team to successfully convert a shot in the shootout, and after Rangers coach Alain Vigneault somehow sent out Michael Grabner for his team’s final feeble attempt, it was the Panthers (31-28-11) walking away victors. And it left Vigneault with what is now a common refrain when dealing with questions about his team’s home woes.
“I said it this morning and I’m going to say it again: 200-by-85, whether you’re here or in Philly or anywhere else, it’s the same ice surface,” Vigneault said, trying to verbally minimize the problem, but hardly fixing it. “For 30 minutes we were able to play a real strong game. You have to put 60 minutes together. There’s no overthinking about it. It’s just as simple as that.”
Yet that 2-0 lead quickly turned into a 2-2 tie just 6:41 into the second period, with Florida getting goals from Jonathan Huberdeau and a power-play goal from Jussi Jokinen. Barkov then got his 19th of the season at 7:32 of the third when he finished a great saucer pass from The Ageless Wonder, 45-year-old Jaromir Jagr.
Though Zuccarello tied it, 3-3, with his 14th of the year at 11:45 of the third, it was that dip in the middle of the game that ended up costing the Rangers.
“I think we didn’t put the pucks deep anymore,” said goalie Antti Raanta, who made 34 saves in his fourth straight start in place of the injured Henrik Lundqvist. “We started to lose the puck in the neutral zone. They got speed, they got skill, so they were spending a lot more time in our end.”
Now the Blueshirts play at Minnesota on Saturday night for the second game of a back-to-back. Considering it’s away from New York, they surely are looking forward to it.
“It’s good we don’t have time to sit around and think about this one,” Miller said. “You want to win every game, but we’re not making it hard on our opponents for a full 60 minutes at home right now.”