from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

You could say this has been a long time coming, but this type of deficient performance has been a recurring theme for the last five weeks in which the Rangers have won eight of their last 16 (8-7-1) while losing by three or more goals five times.

So this 6-3 defeat Monday night at the Garden to a Canucks team that is the highest-scoring team in the league overall and at five-on-five while boasting the NHL’s best goal-differential at plus-53 was not a singular event for the squad that has gone 4-4-1 over the last nine contests and have seen its puffy playoff cushion slowly deflate.

There were too many turnovers in key areas — again. There were too many poor decisions with and without the puck — again. There were too many mistakes positionally — again. There were too many Grade A opportunities with which Igor Shesterkin was forced to contend — again.

Defensive-zone coverage and defensive play was reminiscent of the bad old days when Dave Karpa, Igor Ulanov manned the blue line. Well, maybe not that bad. On third thought, yes, maybe it was on this night on which Elias Pettersson and Nils Hoglander scored circus goals 1:14 apart late in the second period after the Blueshirts had come within 3-2.

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