That horrendous blowout loss Saturday in Boston should have been rock bottom for a Rangers team that finds itself in the midst of a second straight disappointing season.
But it might not have been.
The losses have kept coming for the Rangers, who have now dropped five in a row and fallen into last place in the Eastern Conference. They were thumped, 8-4, Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden by the previously struggling Ottawa Senators, who were playing on the back end of a back-to-back, and who had lost four straight before beating Vancouver at home on Tuesday.
This one dropped them to 20-22-6, including 5-13-4 at home. Goaltender Jonathan Quick, starting his fourth straight game since Igor Shesterkin suffered a lower-body injury, and 800th of his NHL career, was pulled for the second time in three games. Spencer Martin came off the bench to relieve him after Thomas Chabot’s goal at 12:23 of the second period made it 6-0.
Quick lost his 10th straight start (his last win was Nov. 7). The Rangers have been outscored 30-12 during this losing streak.
At least the Rangers showed a little pushback near the end. Rookie Gabe Perreault scored two pretty goals, one late in the second, that made it 6-1, and one early in the third, that pulled them within 6-2. And fellow rookie Noah Laba scored on a power play, tipping in Alexis Lafreniere’s shot to make it 7-3 at 10:44 of the third.
Lafreniere scored at 15:58 to make it 7-4.
For the second straight game, chants of “Fire Drury!’’ referring to Rangers GM Chris Drury, rang out. At this point, Rangers fans might be excused if they start looking ahead to the NHL draft lottery and dreaming of getting a chance to take Penn State forward Gavin McKenna or Swedish forward Ivar Stenberg.
Ottawa (22-19-5) grabbed control in the first period, taking a 4-0 lead into intermission. It started early when Vincent Trocheck was called for a holding penalty 1:33 into the game and Drake Batherson made the Rangers pay by scoring on the power play at 2:18.
It was 2-0 before the game was five minutes old, as Nick Jensen fired a slap shot from the right point that hit the skate of Braden Schneider and got behind Quick at 4:53.
Brady Tkachuk, long the apple of Drury’s eye, and a reported trade target for the Rangers last season, made it 3-0 when he wired a shot from the wing off the far post and in at 15:01. Dylan Cozens scored the fourth goal with 5.7 seconds left.
The onslaught continued in the second period with goals by Jake Sanderson and Chabot before Perreault finally got the Rangers on the board with his second goal of the season with 1:05 left.
The 20-year-old made a nice play all the way around, driving up the middle, taking a pass from Mika Zibanejad, passing to J.T. Miller on the right wing and continuing his drive to the goal. He got behind the defense, took Miller’s pass all alone at the crease, and slipped a nifty backhander between the pads of goalie Leevi Merilainen to make it 6-1.
His second goal, at 5:26 of the third period, was a pretty one, too. He burst up the left wing on a two-on-one break with Zibanejad, and when Zibanejad waited patiently and lifted a perfect saucer pass onto his stick the rookie cut across the goalmouth, pulled the puck to his backhand, and tucked it in.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.