This falling behind thing that the Rangers are doing these days, it’s not ideal.
After rallying from three goals down to win in Edmonton on Friday and then coming from two goals down to earn a point in an overtime loss the next night in Calgary, the Rangers returned to the Garden on Monday night and immediately spotted the Winnipeg Jets a three-goal lead.
This time there would be no improbable comeback.
The Rangers, playing their third game in four nights, with a cross-continent flight home on the non-game day, lost in regulation for the first time in a month when they dropped a 4-1 decision to the Jets.
It wasn’t from lack of trying, though. The Rangers threw everything but the kitchen sink at Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck, who made 50 saves — many of them of the top-shelf variety — to steal the two points for the Jets. Mark Scheifele scored two goals for Winnipeg, which was outshot by the Rangers, 51-21. Vincent Trocheck scored the Rangers' goal and Igor Shesterkin made 17 saves.
The loss ended a 10-game point streak for the Rangers, who are 33-15-9. Their last previous loss in regulation was on Jan. 19, when they dropped a 3-1 decision to the Boston Bruins at the Garden. They had gone 8-0-2 since then. They have 75 points and remain four points behind the second-place Devils in the Metropolitan Division.
And they are about to go back on the road. Following a day off Tuesday, they will practice Wednesday and play Thursday at Detroit and Saturday afternoon at Washington before returning home for Sunday’s game against the L.A. Kings.
Monday marked the return of forward Tyler Motte for the Rangers. Motte, who had been acquired by the Rangers at last year’s trade deadline, was re-acquired by general manager Chris Drury on Sunday from Ottawa, in exchange for forward Julien Gauthier and a conditional seventh-round draft pick.
And apparently, he was happy to be back. In one, three-minute group interview following the morning skate, Motte uttered the word “excited’’ eight times, and the word “exciting’’ once.
“To have a little bit of a taste of this this locker room and the city last year, [I’m] just excited to be back, and hopefully we're ready for another run,’’ Motte said.
Motte, who had been acquired at the NHL trade deadline last season, from Vancouver, and who the Rangers couldn’t afford to re-sign in the summer, began his second tenure with the team on the right wing of the fourth line, with Barclay Goodrow on the left and Jake Leschyshyn in the middle.
Coach Gerard Gallant changed up his top two lines, starting Vladimir Tarasenko where he finished Saturday’s game, on the right wing of the second line, with his pal Artemi Panarin and center Trocheck. Jimmy Vesey stepped into Tarasenko’s old spot on the right of the top line, with Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad, while the Kid Line of Alexis Lafrenière, Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko remained intact.
But for the third straight game, the Rangers started off down 2-0, allowing a power play goal by Pierre-Luc Dubois (a tip-in of a Josh Morrissey shot) at 5:12, before Scheifele poked in a rebound at 16:32 for his 33rd goal of the season.
The Rangers outshot Winnipeg 20-9 in the opening period, but Hellebuyck, playing on the second straight night after facing the Devils in New Jersey, allowed them nothing.
Winnipeg stretched its lead to 3-0 when Kyle Connor whipped a wrist shot through a Braden Schneider screen and past Shesterkin’s blocker at 6:04 of the second period. The Rangers finally got on the board 11 minutes into the second period on a goal by Trocheck that was set up by Tarasenko and came after the Rangers had a dominant shift.
But Hellebuyck frustrated the Rangers again in the third period, and Scheifele scored his second goal with 4:31 remaining to send some of the sellout crowd home early.
