PITTSBURGH — The Rangers were chasing the game from the nine-second mark when Dan Girardi’s unaccountable and unforced icing established an immediate tone on which the Penguins capitalized to pour five shots on Antti Raanta within the first 1:40 and 10 in
The Blueshirts chased the game and they chased the Penguins … until they pretty much stopped chasing and simply watched in an ugly 7-2 defeat on Tuesday that popped the air out of the Blueshirts’ balloon.
Coach Alain Vigneault cited fatigue to explain the dreadful performance in the wake of his club’s ninth game in the last 15 days, but alternate captain Derek Stepan wasn’t about to use the schedule as a crutch.
“I don’t want to throw us too much under the bus and get too deep into it, but I honestly don’t want to put this on the schedule or fatigue,” Stepan told The Post. “With the exception of Antti, there’s not one guy who gave anything more than a ‘C’ performance, and the way we hung him out to dry in the third period is really unfortunate.
“We didn’t have any jam from the first whistle until the last whistle. The effort this year compared to last year is way higher, but we can’t have something like this. It’s just not acceptable.”
The Rangers had allowed a sum of six goals in going 6-1 in their last seven games, holding their opponents to two goals or fewer in each one. The Blueshirts allowed four in the final 15:49 of this game after somehow getting within 3-2 at the 1:52 mark of the third.
But it became 4-2 at 4:11, 5-2 at 6:12, with the Penguins — playing their seventh game in 13 nights and without linchpin defenseman Kris Letang — pretty much playing unopposed the rest of the way in finishing with 47 shots on net and a 57-33 even-strength advantage in attempts after a 17-4 third period.
“Seven goals against makes it tough to take away anything good even if there were some good saves,” said the blameless Raanta. “After the 5-2 goal, we pretty much collapsed.”
Girardi was on for five goals against, three while the Blueshirts were shorthanded. Ryan McDonagh was on for four against, also three while the Penguins worked a man to the good. Kevin Klein looked thoroughly spent.
Vigneault, whose team next plays Friday at home against the Wild, said after the game that he had expected trouble in this one as a consequence of the demanding schedule, but that begs the question why the coach did not insert Adam Clendening into the lineup to spell either Girardi or Klein on the right side.
One man would not have made a difference in this one in which the Penguins were 3-for-5 on the power play to the Rangers’ 0-for-3, but still, a fresh look would have provided at least one set of fresh legs and one fresh mind.
McDonagh talked about the club being outworked, if not for 60 minutes, then for significant portions of it. The Rangers were beaten to the puck all night, beaten in the battles they were able to cre- ate, and they were beaten consistently on the rush through the neutral zone. They were two steps and two thoughts behind across the rink.
This was a team-wide paddy-whacking, blame no more on the defense than on the forwards who were inert in their own end and incapable of possessing and/or retrieving the puck in the Pittsburgh zone. In and out. One and done. And that’s when the Blueshirts were even able to do that little. Brutal.
And though this kind of game is certainly the exception to the rule the Rangers have established in going 2311-1, it’s happened twice in a row against the Penguins, who first humbled the Blueshirts 6-1 in New York on Nov. 21.
That’s the alarming takeaway from this one.
“Playing them should make it an easy game for us to find jam,” said Stepan, whose team did win a 5-2 game here on Nov. 19. “But it’s two games now that we’ve had nothing.”