Blueshirts embarrassed in front of last title team

Even having Mark Messier and his fabled teammates address them in the locker room before the game couldn’t serve as enough inspiration Friday night for the Rangers.

After the 1994 Stanley Cup winners honored in a 25th anniversary pregame ceremony at center ice, the Blueshirts came up empty in a 3-0 loss to the Hurricanes at the Garden. They had won their previous 16 home games against Carolina since 2011, the longest such streak against one opponent in franchise history.

“I thought it was a great opportunity for our guys to be around something we’re all inspired to do, win a Cup here in New York,” Rangers coach David Quinn said after his team fell to 2-3-1 in its past six games to remain nine points below the playoff cutoff in the Eastern Conference. “It’s disappointing in a lot of ways.”

Indeed, with Messier, Mike Richter, Brian Leetch, coach Mike Keenan and the rest of the ’94 squad in attendance, Henrik Lundqvist (30 saves) was vying for his first shutout of the season until Carolina winger Warren Foegele snapped a scoreless tie 6:43 into the final period. Andrei Svechnikov and Brock McGinn added empty-net goals in the final 1:15 to seal it for the Hurricanes (28-21-6).

“Tough one. Going into the game, I think we all felt really inspired and excited to play,” said Lundqvist, who donned a Statue of Liberty mask to honor Richter. “Unfortunately we didn’t get the win.”

When told a few players lamented the team playing with a “lack of urgency,” despite the presence of the ’94 team, Quinn replied: “They would be correct. There was definitely a lack of urgency, which is surprising. It certainly set up to be a special night, we just didn’t capitalize on it.”

Hurricanes goalie Petr Mrazek stopped all 27 shots he faced as the Rangers were blanked for the fifth time this season. They trailed 1-0 when they earned their second power-play opportunity with 5:40 remaining, but they did nothing with it to prompt groans and boos from a crowd that had been cheering heartily just a few hours earlier, mostly for nostalgic reasons.

“For us to have them here, it’s annoying that we couldn’t put on a better show,” Mats Zuccarello said. “It was a good day for that, but hockey-wise, we were not good enough.”

Defenseman Neal Pionk was a healthy scratch for the second straight game.