The body language of All-Stars Marc Staal and Henrik Lundqvist said it all in the Rangers’ 4-2 loss to the Flyers on Sunday.
Staal skated halfway down the Garden ice bent over at the waist instantly following Claude Giroux’s power-play strike gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead. An on-his-knees Lundqvist tilted his head skyward and rolled his eyes toward the spoked ceiling 3:34 later after allowing a Daniel Carcillo even-strength backhand goal to push Philadelphia’s lead to 3-1.
“It’s frustrating,” said Staal. “We are just not able to do it right now and we need to figure out a way to do that and start stringing some wins together.”
A win looked probable after the Blueshirts struck first on the scoreboard for the first time in eight games. More losses, though, could be coming as sniper Marian Gaborik is expected to miss tonight’s game in Carolina.
“I’m frustrated for them because I think they worked their a—es off,” coach John Tortorella said. “It is about results. It is about winning, but we just haven’t been able to do that consistently, especially in the second half of the year.”
The Rangers are 9-12-1 since January and lead Carolina by just two points for the seventh seed, while ninth and 10th seeds, Buffalo and Atlanta, trail by six points.
