There are no sure things in professional sports. Every team is good, and anybody can win a game on any given night. But there are still some games during the course of a season that teams feel like they probably should win given the circumstances and variables in front of them.
New York Rangers center Vincent Trocheck (16) plays the puck against Pittsburgh Penguins right wing Rickard Rakell (67) and center Noel Acciari. Brad Penner-Imagn Images
The New York Rangers were playing one of those games on Friday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
They were at home, in desperate need of two points as they try to creep back into the playoff race, and playing a Penguins team that is not only near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings but was also playing without two future Hall of Famers in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
Despite all of those things working in the Rangers' favor, they did not win.
They dropped a 3-2 decision to an undermanned Penguins team, putting a significant dent in their playoff pursuit.
It's a problem, and it's just another one for a Rangers team that is already overflowing with problems.
Center Vincent Trocheck called the game "inexcusable," and that is a good word for it. It's not just the fact the Rangers lost to that Penguins team, but they were also badly outplayed for most of the game.
Throughout the first two periods, the Penguins looked like the playoff contender playing with desperation and urgency, while the Rangers simply looked like a team playing out the string and going through the motions.
It now leaves the Rangers in a position where they remain five points out of a playoff spot, with four teams between them and a wild-card berth. That may not seem like a lot, but that is an extremely steep hill to climb with less than 30 games to play in the regular season.
Given the current pace each team is on, it would take around 93 points to secure one of the wild-card spots in the Eastern Conference. The Rangers would need to get 37 points over their remaining 28 games to reach that mark. That would be a .660 points percentage the rest of the way.
Just for comparison's sake, the Rangers have managed only .519 points percentage for the season after Friday's game. A .660 points percentage would also be the second-best record (by far) in the Eastern Conference right now. In other words, the Rangers would need to play the remaining 28 games like the second-best team in the Eastern Conference just to get to the low point of the playoff race. That is a problem.
They do not defend well, they are not a good five-on-five team and pretty much every flaw they have had for the past few years remains unfixed and not addressed. Just about the only thing they have going for them is the fact starting goalie Igor Shesterkin is one of the best goalies in the NHL and has a tendency to put the team on his back and steal games. He is going to have to do that a lot over the next couple of months just to give the Rangers a chance of even getting close to the Stanley Cup playoffs this season.
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