NEW YORK _ Sometimes, when there really isn't much at stake, it can be hard for a team of professionals to get up for a game. And judging by the way they'd played on the road during the week, it sure looked as though the Rangers, who've known for a while now that the playoffs are out of reach, were having trouble getting themselves pumped up.
"We've slipped a little bit," Rangers coach David Quinn said at Saturday's morning skate before the Rangers' 4-2 victory over the Devils at Madison Square Garden that snapped a six-game losing streak. "I thought, right before the trade deadline, when we played the Devils, and the next four or five games after that, we played good hockey. And we were purposeful, and we had the right intentions, and there was a cohesiveness and there was _ there was a good feeling, even though we were only getting one point (in overtime losses to Washington and Tampa Bay). And I thought, starting against Dallas, and even through Detroit, we had lost that a little bit, and I think maybe the frustration level of losing kind of caught up to us a little bit."
Apparently, the Rangers still had the blahs in the opening period against the Devils, falling behind 2-0 on two goals allowed late in the period. But three straight goals, beginning with one by Ryan Strome late in the second period and ending with a second by Strome into the empty Devils net with 9.6 seconds left.
In between the goals by Strome, Vladislav Namestnikov scored the eventual game-winner, at 13:25 of the third period, and Libor Hajek, the 21-year-old rookie defenseman playing in his fifth NHL game, scored his first NHL goal, at 1:29 of the third period. Unfortunately for Hajek, he would leave the game midway through the third period after taking a hit from the Devils' Blake Coleman that left him favoring his left shoulder.
Defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, who sat out Thursday's 3-2 shootout loss in Detroit as a healthy scratch, helped get the Rangers on the board late in the second period, when he fired the shot that was deflected in by Strome at 18:22. Shattenkirk was back in the lineup in place of Marc Staal, who missed his first game of the season. Staal, who had been battling the flu, probably should not have played Thursday, Quinn said, so Quinn decided to give Staal the night off against the Devils.
Quinn, meanwhile, said he'd talked to Shattenkirk about the need to step up his game.
"He and I had had conversations leading up to (his being scratched), so he wasn't surprised," Quinn said. "And he had a long talk, not only about right now, but what he's going to have to continue to do, moving forward in his career, as most guys who hit 30 have to do, especially in this NHL. The NHL that these guys are playing in now isn't the NHL that it was two years ago. He's fully understanding of that."
Quinn said Shattenkirk needs to play faster, and the coach said he showed Shattenkirk video of himself playing on the power play in St. Louis, where he became a star before being traded to Washington in the spring of 2017 and then signing that summer with the Rangers as a free agent.
Searching for a spark, Quinn juggled his forward lines, dropping Chris Kreider down to the fourth line, with Lias Andersson and Boo Nieves, while promoting Filip Chytil and Namestnikov to Mika Zibanejad's flanks on the top line. Jimmy Vesey, who had played on the first line with Zibanejad and Kreider, dropped to the second line, with Strome and Jesper Fast.
