LOS ANGELES — There has been nothing opportunistic about this Rangers team since the start of the season.
At times, it has been bad puck luck. A matter of effort in others. Execution hasn’t been nearly as consistent as they would like, either.
In a 4-3 loss to the Kings Tuesday night, however, the Blueshirts whiffed on several moments with game-changing potential to drop their 10th contest in their last 12.
They trailed just 18 seconds into the game.
While facing a one-goal deficit, a five-on-three power play for 1:36 was wasted.
A failed clearing attempt ended up in the back of their net shortly after.
And with momentum on their side early in the third period, the Rangers couldn’t translate it to the scoreboard until it was too late.
It resulted in the Blueshirts falling to 1-2 on the road trip so far with one more stop in San Jose to go.
“How many times have I talked to you guys about critical moments in games?” head coach Mike Sullivan asked reporters rhetorically Tuesday night. “The start of periods, start of games, last minute, after a goal scored, after a fight. Those are critical moments in games where teams have an opportunity to build momentum. I do think we responded. I thought we responded after it. It’s 2-2 after the first period. I felt like we did respond, but it’s an instance where there’s just not a lot of attention to detail there.”
The Rangers were caught flat-footed off the opening faceoff.
A one-and-done dump into the offensive zone — a specialty of this Rangers team — led to an odd-man rush the other way for the Kings.
Adrien Kempe buried one off a give-and-go with Brandt Clarke to open the scoring just 18 seconds into the game.
Poor puck management was at the crux of the Rangers’ loss in Anaheim, and it cost them again early Tuesday night.
After Scott Morrow’s shot from the top of the zone hit off Will Cuylle and in to tie it up, the Rangers gave it right back.
Shortly after LA welcomed him back to Crypto.com Arena with a jumbotron tribute, Vladislav Gavrikov turned the puck over right to the stick of Kevin Fiala for the 2-1 Kings lead.
Mika Zibanejad made up for it by continuing the absolute tear he’s currently on.
Feeding J.T. Miller crashing the net for the two-all score, Zibanejad extended his point streak to 10 games.
He has collected an eye-catching nine goals and 10 assists over that span.
Darcy Kuemper exited the game at the end of the first period, after the Kings’ goalie denied Jonny Brodzinski on a breakaway.
Unable to skate it off, Kuemper headed to the locker room, and Anton Forsberg manned the net in relief for the remainder of the game.
The Kings added two more in the second period, while the Rangers failed to take advantage of prime chances.
Braden Schneider had a particularly rough middle frame, in which he inadvertently set up the Kings’ 3-2 score before taking back-to-back penalties.
The puck bounced off Schneider’s stick and right to Taylor Ward for the go-ahead goal at the 4:23 mark.
After they failed to convert on a 5-on-3 power play, the visitors couldn’t clear the puck later in the period. Andrei Kuzmenko then knocked in a rebound to give his team a two-goal lead heading into the second intermission.
“That was a big moment in the game,” Miller said of the two-man advantage. “They scored right after that to go up two. The same as yesterday [against the Ducks], I don’t know how I didn’t score in the last five minutes of that game. It kind of felt the same today with some of the looks that [Vincent Trocheck] got. It’s not going in … I think we’re happy with the execution. At the end of the night, we can sleep well knowing that you’re doing the right things. You have to believe that if you keep doing the right things then the puck will go in the net.”
