New York Rangers: Big-boy hockey, other takeaways from Blues loss

1. No moral victories with big boy hockey

After being given a harsh reality check over the weekend by the way of two huge losses to the Philadelphia Flyers, Head Coach David Quinn would have been looking for a response from his young group.

And he got it against the St. Louis Blues, with Quinn calling the effort from his players against the reigning Stanley Cup champions “big boy hockey.”

However, moral victories count for very little at this stage of the year and this was very much an opportunity squandered by the Blueshirts.

While the Rangers did give it their best shot against a stellar St. Louis Blues team, they failed to strike while they were on top.

They generated enough looks in the third period alone but they could not capitalize, thus leaving the door open for the Blues.

And, when you are as good as St. Louis is, you are just asking for trouble when you don’t go for the jugular.

So, as you could have predicted, the game was lost when Brayden Schenn was given the time and freedom to bank in a wraparound off Alexandar Georgiev for the game-winning goal.

That took the momentum and the spirit right out of the Rangers, who were unable to muster up much of a response.

As a result, it was a third straight loss for the New York Rangers who won’t get into the postseason just by playing well at this stage of the season.

Big-boy hockey is all well and good, but they need to rediscover the formula that led to nine wins from 10 prior to Friday.