Rangers Take Positives From Emotional Loss To Panthers

The New York Rangers displayed a valiant effort, but still lost 5-3 to the Florida Panthers on Monday night.

All hope seemed lost as the Rangers gave up two goals in the first six minutes of the contest, continuing their trend of poor first-period play.

Once the Rangers fall into a hole, they are usually unable to climb out of it, but that did not happen in Florida.

The Rangers played some of their best hockey in what feels like months during the second period of this game.

New York put the pressure on the Panthers and completely controlled the pace of play, leading to goals from Filip Chytil and Ryan Lindgren to tie up the score at 2-2.

Down by one goal in the final frame, the Rangers found a way to even things up after Chris Kreider scored a power play goal.

However, a sloppy defensive zone sequence led to the game-winning goal for Florida, crushing an emotional rally from the Blueshirts.

While there are no moral victories in sports, the Rangers played with heart and passion, which is something we haven't seen from this team in a long time.

“I thought we played well,” Vincent Trocheck said via Peter Baugh of The Athletic. “Could’ve went either way. No moral victories at this point. … If we play like that, we’ll have a good chance most nights.”

Peter Laviolette remains frustrated despite a solid performance from his team as the Rangers have now lost four games in a row.

“We did enough to win the game, we did enough to lose the game. It is frustrating because you feel like you’re doing more good than you are bad out there,” Laviolette said via Mollie Walker Of The New York Post. "At the end of the day, it’s not showing on the scoreboard. That’s the business, it’s winning. It’s not good enough.”

The Rangers will be back in action on Thursday night against the Boston Bruins.