If 2024 is going to be the Rangers’ year, it did not start the way the club likely envisioned.
Opening with a 6-1 loss to the Hurricanes, the team on their heels in the Metropolitan Division, the Blueshirts suffered their fifth defeat by four or more goals this season Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
This was just the 10th regulation loss of the season for a Rangers team that has been perched atop the NHL for weeks, but it was yet another trouncing in a season that has seen one too many of them.
When the Rangers do lose — as few and far between as those defeats have been — they tend to lose mightily.
If the Rangers are looking for a New Year’s Resolution, that may be a good place to start.
The Canes did what the Canes do best.
As a result, the visitors left New York just five points behind the Rangers (two games in hand) in the division.
They wore the Rangers down with a relentless forecheck and strong play along the boards, while the Rangers struggled to generate scoring opportunities during five-on-five play and their three power-play chances.
Carolina has been racking up the goals lately, having posted 13 in the previous three games and that carried over into the new year.
Andrei Svechnikov, who was on the other side of the collision with Adam Fox in the first meeting that landed the Rangers’ defenseman on long-term injured reserve, led the Canes with two goals.
After falling into a 2-0 hole in the first period due to the Hurricanes’ power play, the Rangers managed to get on the board at the 4:28 mark of the second.
Chris Kreider tied his career-long point streak of seven games by getting a stick on a long shot from Jacob Trouba to redirect it past Carolina goalie Pyotr Kochetkov.
A miscommunication between Erik Gustafsson and Braden Schneider, however, allowed the Hurricanes to regain their two-goal lead less than two minutes later.
Gustafsson left the puck behind the Rangers goal for no one and Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin tipped it into the corner, where Jordan Staal retrieved it and fed Jordan Martinook in the slot for the 3-1 lead.
The Hurricanes just continued to pile it on in the third period as the Rangers gave up two more goals.
The Rangers gave up two power-play goals in the first period, just the second time they’ve allowed more than one man-advantage goal in a game this season and the first since Oct. 19 against Nashville.
It put them on their heels shortly after puck drop, when Alexis Lafreniere was called for interference 30 seconds into the game.
Jack Drury — yes, Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury’s nephew — rung one off the post and in for the 1-0 lead.
Feisty battles for the puck started early and led to one Rangers power play in comparison to the Canes’ two through the opening 20 minutes.
The Rangers put up one shot, while the visitors went 2-for-2, including Svechnikov’s one-timer with 30.4 seconds left in the opening frame.