The Rangers, seemingly hitting the snooze button in recent weeks, got off to another slow start against the Sabres on Friday night, battling back to save a point in an eventual 3-2 overtime loss.
New York was forced to spend most of the game correcting its rough beginning, erasing an early 2-0 deficit in an all-too familiar sight for a fed up Gerard Gallant.
“Yeah, great start again,” Gallant said sarcastically. “It’s typical.”
The early deficit to Buffalo comes just two nights after the Rangers fell behind 2-0 early to the rival Devils in a game that the Blueshirts needed to have to pull into a tie for second place in the Metro. Instead, they fell 2-1 after taking too long to find their footing in Newark.
“I don’t know what it is,” Gallant said. “We talk about it all the time…the last five or six [games] have been a joke.”
The Rangers have already clinched a playoff spot, and are seemingly locking themselves in to the third place spot in the division, but their level of play, especially in first periods, is clearly not where Gallant wants it to be heading into the postseason.
“We want to win games,” Gallant said. “I'm pissed off tonight because we got one point. We want to win hockey games. That's what we're here for. We clinched a week ago, and it seems like we clinched and the season’s over. That’s not the way it’s supposed to work. You’re supposed to compete and try to play hard every night and do the best you can. I didn’t like the way we played tonight at all.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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