If the Rangers were to get a reality check after easily defeating the humble Devils four games in a row, leave it to the islands.
Because after playing for a team that had been disbanded by the trading deadline and whose playoff hopes are non-existent, the Blueshirts were humiliated Tuesday night at the Nassau Coliseum, with a 6-1 loss to an Islanders team that is fight for the series leader in the east.
After winning two convincing victories over their New York rivals at the start of the season, the Rangers managed to meet the post-season version of the Islands, whose victory even attracted them to the capital for first place in the division.
“They’re ready for the playoffs,” said Brendan Smith. “And I certainly felt a little bit of that.”
While Rangers’ rise to win a postseason bid could have become even more daunting – with the Bruins bringing them six points ahead of them after a win over Sabers on Tuesday – the most troubling loss of the night was the of defender Jacob Trouba, who was placed in the tables by Martin Martin, the heavy weight of about the middle of the first period.
He was visibly noisy and was struggling to get back on his skates. With the way Trouba’s head hit the glass, it probably has a concussion.
Trouba, who did not return with what the team described as an upper body injury, had been the Rangers’ main source of physicality to the end. His loss for any length of time, let alone the final stage of the regular season, would be to the detriment of the Rangers’ hopes of finishing strong.
“Obviously you saw the effect it had,” head coach David Quinn said of Trouba’s loss. “But I didn’t like what I was doing before he was hurt. I thought we just weren’t playing the way we should, if we had a chance. I was careless, I had too much risk, too east-west.
“We weren’t playing fast enough and once Troubs came out, our level of play dropped even more.”
After bringing a 3-1 advantage in the third period, the islanders threw the game with three unanswered goals. Behind a three-point night from Josh Bailey, including two goals, the Islanders apparently returned to their style of hard play, which had saved them three losses in the previous five games.
The Islanders came out with a 1-0 advantage after a first period played at the intensity of the playoffs. From the moment Trouba went to the locker room, the Rangers were clearly disbanded.
A few changes after a crazy sequence in which a free kick came behind Rangers goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin and somehow did not enter, Bailey swept a pass from JG Pageau at 17:42 to give the islands a 1-0 advantage. Brock Nelson almost doubled the lead at the buzzer after stripping Ryan Lindgren, but hit the crossbar.
Nelson made up for it at just 1:38 in the second, redirecting a feed from Nick Leddy to Shesterkin. The Rangers struggled to stay out of the penalty box early and sent the Islanders to the third piece of power, which Anthony Beauvillier, on his way to a four-point night, capitalized on with a single given the score at 3-0, just over five minutes into the average.
Brendan Smith, who competed in the second period as if the hopes of the Rangers playoffs depended, broke the shot in which Kevin Rooney deflected it for their only goal of the game.
The 6th round of the Battle of New York did not really feel like a battle, as it easily belonged to the islands.