The New York Rangers’ struggles continued as they lost 5-1 to the New Jersey Devils on Monday night. On Saturday afternoon, the Rangers snapped a five-game losing streak and things finally seemed to be going in the right direction for the Blueshirts. Unfortunately, that thought was short-lived. Less than 10 minutes into the contest, the Devils already scored two goals. The reasoning for that was once again the Rangers’ poor defensive structure and disastrous play in their own zone. While the Rangers definitely possessed the puck for a longer period of time and actually recorded a total of 39 shots, it was a lack of urgency defensively and a couple costly plays that led to their downfall. Igor Shesterkin Has Reportedly Rejected Contract Extension Paying Him $11 Million Per Season The Rangers are just so fragile in terms of their confidence. Any time the Rangers even made one small blunder, the confidence of the team perceived to go down and mistakes continued to pile up. “I think we're finding different ways to lose right now as opposed to finding different ways to win,” Kreider said. It’s so clear that New York is playing like a team with no confidence and the Devils took full advantage of that. As New Jersey’s lead increased, Devils fans started to take over with chants at Madison Square Garden, which was indicative of how the night was spiraling out of control for the Rangers. It keeps getting worse and worse in New York. This tough stretch on top of all of the trade rumors hovering over the franchise has caused the Rangers to lose its identity, an identity that propelled them to win the Presidents’ Trophy last season. “We gotta win hockey games. We're a good hockey team,” Peter Laviolette said. “Right now, we're not playing very good hockey. We need to be better and those are things that are in our control. Those answers are in the room. Those are the answers that we need to figure out as a group.” Following the game though, players were a bit more positive than expected, sending the message that the team needs to grow stronger through this adversity. “Things haven't been going how we've wanted to lately,” Jacob Trouba said. “Right now, these aren't fun times to go through but like I said, these are where teams get built. You've got to find your way through adversity to get to the good stuff.” The Rangers will be back in action on Friday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
