If you’re looking for the Rangers to totally change course coming off a fourth straight loss — and seventh in eight games — that didn’t happen Tuesday.
Instead, there was a fairly physical practice in Tarrytown as the team prepared for Wednesday’s game at Madison Square Garden against the equally inept Senators, who are also in the middle of a four-game losing streak.
“I said to the guys this morning, ‘We’ve got to bring an unwavering level of enthusiasm into what we do every day if we’re gonna ultimately pull ourselves out of this,’” coach Mike Sullivan said. “It starts with our attitude, a strong practice [and] competing hard.”
For a team that is searching for answers, none have become apparent as they fall further down the Eastern Conference standings with the Olympic break approaching and the March 6 deadline the next milestones on the schedule.
“Try to take it one day at a time and try to have some enthusiasm out there and jump in our step,’’ Vincent Trocheck said of the team’s mentality following another ugly loss, this one featuring a blown two-goal lead at home on Monday against Seattle.
After the latest defeat, more than one Ranger player called the team “fragile,” and that came two days after Trocheck said the team needed a “reset” in the wake of their blowout loss in Boston on Saturday.
“We’ve got to work through it,’’ Trocheck said of the team’s downward spiral. “There’s no answer, really. You try to come together as a group, try to have fun with the game and get better at the things we’re doing wrong.”
Those mistakes are especially glaring when the team is stumbling through another ugly part of their season.
With Igor Shesterkin and Adam Fox out, as well as Conor Sheary and Adam Edstrom, the Rangers are relying on lesser players to get them out of this rut.
That can lead to more miscues on the ice, as Sullivan noted Tuesday, when he was asked about a disorganized line change that helped result in Seattle’s go-ahead goal midway through the third period.
“Some of our guys, it’s a work in progress,’’ Sullivan said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys in the lineup. For me, it boils down to situational awareness. … We’ve got to do a better job controlling those situations.”
And with none of the four injured Rangers evidently close to returning, it will be at least in some part up to some inexperienced players to find their game and help the Rangers get back into the playoff picture.
“[Monday] night, up 2-0, it’s important to go into that intermission and reset and go into the second period as if it’s a 0-0 game,’’ Trocheck said. “We’ve got to get better at compartmentalizing our past.”
With one more game at the Garden — where the fans took part in several “Fire Drury” chants to express their displeasure with general manager Chris Drury — before a four-game road trip, the Rangers are closing in on falling too far back for the return of those veteran players to matter and perhaps Drury will be more motivated to sell prior to the March 6 deadline instead of buying.
But Sullivan, who won Stanley Cup titles in his first seasons in both Boston and Pittsburgh, said he’s not going to let his team wilt, even if it’s not the roster they envisioned.
“That’s the world we live in now,’’ Sullivan said of the younger-than-expected group. “We have to stay in the moment. We’re not gonna get overwhelmed by the circumstances or the noise.”
If things don’t improve soon, that noise will only get louder.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
