Madison Square Garden has never been a real garden party for the New York Rangers regardless of era. But the Rangers lost their sixth straight home game on Friday night,
James Reimer picked up win in MSG – file photo by Brent Clark
4-3, to the Florida Panthers in a shootout.
The Rangers are not comfortable on home ice and if they make the playoffs in a wild card spot they may be well off with the road record as stellar as it is.
On Friday, Aleksander Barkov scored the game-winner in the shootout.
The win moved the Panthers to within five points of the second wild card spot.
“Right now we just need to not look at the standings,” Barkov said. “Just play hockey and try to win every game we can.”
Mats Zuccarello struck twice for the Rangers and J.T. Miller added a goal for New York who dropped to 44-24-3.
The Rangers’ bench boss sounded exasperated after the loss.
“I said it this morning and I’m going to say it again: 200 by 85 (feet), whether you’re here or in [Philadelphia] or anywhere else, it’s the same ice surface,” Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault said. “For 30 minutes we were able to play a real strong game. You have to put 60 minutes together. There’s no overthinking about it, it’s just as simple as that.”
Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and Jussi Jokinen scored in regulation.
James Reimer made 29 saves for the win.
“We just didn’t come out the way we wanted. Kudos to the guys for responding, being resilient and coming back. It showed some of the character we have,” Reimer said,
WATCH: All Panthers vs. Rangers highlights
Antti Raanta made 34 saves in taking the loss.
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