For the Rangers on Monday, it was all about response.
How would they bounce back from Saturday’s humiliating defeat in Boston, when they became the first team to allow 10 goals in a game this season?
They got their answer against Seattle: Another loss.
This 4-2 defeat at Madison Square Garden, though, was even more brutal than most.
And the Garden crowd responded with several “Fire Drury” chants after general manager Chris Drury received a vote of confidence from owner James Dolan last week.
It came as the Rangers matched their season-high by dropping their fourth straight game and also blew an early two-goal lead, when they scored on two of their first four shots.
But just as quickly, the cushion disappeared in a miserable second period and then they fell behind for good when Seattle’s Shane Wright stuffed one past Jonathan Quick at 12:02 in the third to give the Kraken the lead.
An empty-netter helped send the Rangers to their seventh loss in their past eight games.
Afterward, the Rangers were left searching for answers, as Mika Zibanejad and Braden Schneider both called the team “fragile.”
“You’ve just got to keep digging in,’’ Mike Sullivan said of how to change the direction of the season. “This game isn’t for the faint of heart. When you go through circumstances like this, my experience is you have to simplify the game. You can’t get overwhelmed. … I understand the circumstance we’re in, but the answers are inside our locker room and that’s where we have to look for them.”
If they are there, the players seem incapable of locating them.
Even a fast start didn’t help, as Zibanejad banked one in off the back of Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer to give the Rangers a lead at 3:08 of the first period.
Sam Carrick followed by scoring on a wrister at 5:31 of the first to put them up by a pair of goals and the Rangers seemed to be on their way to an uncharacteristic convincing win.
Then reality set in.
It started early in the second, as Eeli Tolvanen beat Jonathan Quick at the 1:00 mark, thanks to some sloppy passing by the Rangers, to cut the lead to 2-1.
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Just over three minutes later, Jordan Eberle’s wrister got by Quick to tie the game at 2-2.
When Wright followed Berkly Catton’s shot by knocking it by Quick, Seattle had its first lead- and the “Fire Drury” chants grew louder, as the team continues to drop in the Eastern Conference standings with the Olympic break approaching and the trade deadline just over seven weeks away.
Another loss makes it even more difficult to envision a turnaround, particularly with the team talking about righting the ship prior to the game.
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When it was over, they seemed as lost as ever.
Alexis Lafrenière, dropped from the second line to the third, was invisible again.
And after the Rangers put up 11 shots in a solid first period, they had just 10 the rest of the way, as they were limited to two goals for a fourth consecutive match.
“Maybe at times we’re looking at someone else to solve the problem,’’ Zibanejad said. “Four guys may be looking. That doesn’t work in this league.”
Right now, without the injured Adam Fox and Igor Shesterkin, nothing is working.
They host Ottawa Wednesday before a trip to Philadelphia and then a three-game West Coast swing.
So the path doesn’t figure to get any less bumpy for the Rangers anytime soon.
“It stings,’’ Zibanejad said. “It’s not fun to lose. We’re trying to look for answers.”
