Condensed schedule takes toll

Every coach and general manager in the NHL could look at their schedules before the start of this season and pick out games nearly impossible to win just by matter of circumstance.

The 7-2 walloping the Rangers took in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night was not justified by a compressed schedule. But it was impossible not to see the wear and tear from the Blueshirts’ ninth game in 15 days, only three of them at home.

“When you look at your schedule at the beginning of the season, with experience, you’re capable of picking out certain dates that might be more challenging than others just because of the demands of the schedule, the late nights, etc.,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “You know that energy-wise for your team, it might be very, very challenging. I knew that this one might be one of those, and, without a doubt, it was.”

Vigneault mercifully gave his team off Wednesday before scheduling its first practice in nine days on Thursday. After that, the Rangers play host to the Wild on Friday night before going into the three-day Christmas break.

So there is a slight respite coming up, the games resuming Tuesday at home against Derick Brassard and the Senators, and then off for the annual New Year’s trip, this one being a new twogame swing from Arizona to Colorado, where they will play the Avalanche on New Year’s Eve.

Vigneault’s team is understandably a tired one, the season having started late because of the World Cup of Hockey — five of his players participated — and condensed because of the new five-day “bye week” each team is getting. The Rangers have played admirably in amassing a 23-11-1 record, but they have also played those 35 games in 69 days, the shortest time span in franchise history to get through that much of the schedule.

If it was most noticeable somewhere Tuesday, it was captain Ryan McDonagh, who played terrifically for Team USA in the World Cup and kept that going for almost all of the first 34 games — his lone off night coming when the team could not make up for it. For the player Vigneault puts on the ice for a team-high 24:04 of average ice time per game, there was an explanation why he had a few costly miscues.

“Ryan McDonagh is a great defenseman, makes three bad decisions in the third [period],” Vigneault said. “He’s a great defenseman, but the schedule just caught up to a couple guys, and that’s the way it is.”