The Rangers kept talking Monday morning about responding to their humiliating loss in Boston with a big effort against old friends Kaapo Kakko and Ryan Lindgren and the Seattle Kraken at Madison Square Garden.
And they got off to the start they wanted on Monday night, getting a goal from Mika Zibanejad (six goals, five assists in the last five games) early in the first period and one from fourth-line center Sam Carrick that gave them a two-goal lead before the game was six minutes old.
But the lead slipped away. The whole season is starting to slip away.
The Kraken rallied for four unanswered goals in the final two periods to deal the Rangers their fourth straight loss, a 4-2 defeat (that followed Saturday’s 10-2 loss to Boston) before an ornery Garden crowd that began chanting “Fire Drury!’’
The chants about general manager Chris Drury came after Berkly Catton scored what proved to be the game-winner when he jammed a rebound past Jonathan Quick (26 saves) at 12:02 of the third period. Jared McCann added an empty-netter with 10 seconds remaining.
Quick, who had allowed Boston’s first six goals in Saturday’s embarrassing defeat, lost his 10th straight decision and has not won since Nov. 7.
The Rangers fell below NHL .500 at 20-21-6 and are six points out of a playoff spot with 35 games left in the season. It doesn’t help that they are tied for the fewest games remaining in the Eastern Conference.
“It’s really hard,’’ defenseman Braden Schneider said when asked how difficult it is to not get discouraged with each loss. “It feels like we’re really fighting it right now. Guys know we’re a good team and we believe that we have the ability to win games. And guys still believe in here that we’re good. And we’ve just got to make sure that we’re not letting the small things that happen in a game get to us.
“I think we’re definitely a little bit of a fragile group right now, and we’ve got to make sure that we keep pushing forward.’’
“Fragile’’ is a word that came up a few times in the Rangers’ somber locker room after the game. They seemed to crumble when Schneider’s pass for Gabe Perreault was stolen by Seattle’s Freddie Gaudreau and turned into a breakaway goal by Eeli Tolvanen that brought the Kraken within 2-1 a minute into the second period.
“Starts of periods are always critical moments in a game,’’ coach Mike Sullivan said when asked if Tolvanen’s goal represented a turning point. “It gives them juice right away to start the second period . . . and it’s really, when you look at the way it evolved, it was a non-event circumstance, and it ends up with a two-on-one in the back of our net.
“We’ve just got to do a better job in managing the puck and executing tape-to-tape passes and making sure we get a puck deep when we’re late in the shift.’’
After that goal, it seemed as if the Rangers were destined to cough up the lead. They did at 4:27 when Seattle captain Jordan Eberle, a former Islander, snapped a shot up and over the glove of Quick, who started his third consecutive game since Igor Shesterkin went on injured reserve last Tuesday.
Eberle was set up by a pass from Kakko, a former Ranger who was traded to Seattle last season.
Lindgren, who was traded to Colorado last season and who signed with Seattle over the summer as a free agent, set up the third Kraken goal. He backhanded a pass to Shane Wright, whose shot was saved by Quick’s pad. Catton jammed in the rebound.
Rangers captain J.T. Miller, who left the game briefly in the second period after accidentally being hit and dropped to the ice by Schneider, struggled to put the result into perspective afterward.
“We worked hard tonight. A couple mistakes ended up in the back of the net. Lost,’’ Miller said when asked about the team’s response to the drubbing in Boston.
When asked what his message was to the team after the game, he said, “I didn’t say anything. I don’t know what to say.’’
Ten games remain before the Olympic break and 14 remain before the March 6 trade deadline. And if the Rangers, still without Shesterkin and defenseman Adam Fox, had hoped they’d be getting reinforcements at the deadline, the likelihood is that they probably can’t count on that anymore.
“I understand the circumstance that we’re in,’’ Sullivan said, “but the answers are inside our locker room, and that’s where we have to look for them.’’
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.
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