Monday's meeting between the Rangers and Flyers meant more than the rewards that typically come from beating a rival.
For the Rangers, this game was circled on David Quinn's calendar for some time and the second-year head coach drummed up the importance of what this particular contest meant in the standings and in terms of the Blueshirts' greater ambitions.
Lately, Quinn and his team have repeated the goal of making the playoffs. The 5-1 defeat demonstrated the gulf that stands between the Rangers and their Broad Street rivals. Playoff teams don't put in an incomplete 60 minutes like the Blueshirts did at Wells Fargo Center.
The Rangers played two strong, evenly contested periods of hockey before collapsing in the final frame. After Travis Sanheim's late second period goal evened the score, the Flyers punched in four third period goals.
In all, the Flyers netted five unanswered goals after Jesper Fast's shorthanded goal pulled the Rangers ahead 1-0 at 6:44 of the second period. The Rangers wasted four power play chances, including 56 seconds of a 5-on-3 advantage during the first period. Over the last five games, the Blueshirts have floundered to 0-for-18 on the man advantage. Zero confidence, zero decisiveness. It's that bad.
Several Flyers' goals highlighted a continuation of the Rangers' recurrent defensive flaws. The Rangers offered acres of time and space on Sanheim's tying goal. Mika Zibanejad failed to pressure Sanheim and Marc Staal backed off. It's typical of the passive way that the Blueshirts have defended since Lindy Ruff has been installed as an assistant coach in the summer of 2017.
Pavel Buchnevich failed to pick up goal-scorer Kevin Hayes on the Flyers' go-ahead goal. Jacob Trouba was caught in no man's land on Sanheim's second goal of the night, which increased Philly's lead to 3-1. A second Hayes goal put the contest out of reach and Nicolas Aube-Kubel's late goal put the icing on the gingerbread cookie.
So, here we are yet again: Another stellar Henrik Lundqvist effort in net spoiled by some shoddy defending and hesitation on the power play. Sound familiar?
They say that old habits die hard. It's long overdue for the Rangers to get their passive defending and gun-shy attacking out of their system. It's one thing to speak boldly about the desire to make the playoffs and it's another thing entirely to pinpoint and fix the tendencies that have dogged this team season after season. Until these issues are rectified, rivals like the Flyers will be light years ahead of the Blueshirts.
Maybe the Rangers should quit the playoff talk until they get the bare minimum basics right.
Follow Sean on Twitter -- @HartnettHockey
