Every game the Rangers have played recently has come with seismic implications.
With the season already hanging in the balance with 48 games left on the schedule, each time the Blueshirts step on the ice, it has felt like the biggest game of the year.
And yet, day after day, the severity of their situation seemingly does nothing but weigh the Rangers down.
Monday afternoon’s 5-0 disaster against the Devils at Prudential Center was no outlier.
At this point, it has become expected of this Rangers team, which will go into the holiday break five points out of a playoff spot.
The Devils and fans clad in red at The Rock were salivating over the Rangers’ arrival in Newark.
After their 5-1 win over the Rangers at Madison Square Garden earlier this month, the Devils seemed to relish a chance to rout their cross-Hudson rivals a second time.
They’ll venture to the Garden on Jan. 9 ready to do it again, and then once more in April when a playoff bid may not even be in play for the Rangers if they continue down this road.
For a team that’s always been lauded for its high-end talent, the Rangers — with veteran Chris Kreider a surprising healthy scratch — couldn’t hold a candle to Devils star Jack Hughes.
The 23-year-old Hughes scored twice in his team’s fifth win in their last five, which pushed the Devils ahead of the Capitals for first in the Metropolitan Division standings before Washington played the Bruins Monday night.
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Devils fans reveled in the Rangers’ poor performance. They taunted Igor Shesterkin on the bench. The Jumbotron trolled the organization by playing a clip of MSG cheering for the Devils’ first-overall selection of Hughes, which allowed the Rangers to take Kaapo Kakko at No. 2 before they shipped the Finnish wing to Seattle last week after a disappointing end to his tenure in New York.
New Jersey has now won four straight at home, while the Rangers haven’t won at MSG since Dec. 6.
There is no comparing the Rangers to the top-tier clubs in the league anymore, because they have not been in that conversation since the season started.
One step forward has consistently been followed by two steps back. The fire to push through has never burned strong enough.
The result is the Rangers’ second shutout loss in four games, something that hasn’t happened since the 2020-21 season, when they were blanked twice in the span of three contests in February.
The penalty kill has been the Rangers strongest aspect of their game all season, but it’s caved the last couple games.
After giving up their first power-play goal in six games to the Hurricanes Sunday, the Blueshirts gave up two to the Devils — one from Hughes and the other from Timo Meier for the 3-0 lead in the second period.
The Rangers put up five shots in the first period. Just four in the second, and three in the third.
Finishing the game on the wrong end of a 12-6 edge in high-danger chances, the Rangers barely mustered up a fight. The Devils chipped in two more in the third for fun.