The Rangers regained their good name by turning their season around in January. But the season is long. And it has become too long for the Rangers, who are soiling themselves again to put a perfect bow on 2024-25.
The Blueshirts approached Tuesday night’s Garden match against the Flames as if it were a preseason match in September and not a critical match in the playoff race. It seemed as if getting a coherent 60-minute effort was too much to ask.
Indeed, this 2-1 defeat to the Flames that represented the club’s sixth loss in the past eight games (2-4-2) reflected one of the club’s sloppiest, most disengaged performances of the season. The Rangers could not make a simple play. They could not organize an attack. They committed egregious errors at both ends of the ice.
And the energy meter was on empty. The playoff chase is drawing some of the worst out of this group. This appears to be pure drudgery for the Rangers, who fell out of the second wild-card spot and into a world of playoff hurt.
