The Rangers struggles have reached panic city.

The boobirds at MSG on Saturday night as the ruthless 18,006 reigned down on these reeling  2022-23 Rangers, who dropped two straight decisions to last-place teams in less than 48 hours. On Friday, they squandered a late lead, falling 3-2 in overtime to the Ottawa Senators, and turned in a dud in their  5-2 defeat at the hands of the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday.

As someone who was at the Saturday night contest, it was infuriating to see the boys look lifeless and play down to competition despite the crowd’s pleas, and it even surprised the Blackhawks fans in attendance, some  of which who told me, “We’re terrible and entered today on an eight-game losing streak, but the Rangers look worse right now.”

There are an abundance of reasons for the downfall that has descended on the broadway Blueshirts, who, at 11-10-5, are a far cry from last year’s team that made the Eastern Conference finals are currently out of the Eastern Conference playoff picture, and can soon be contending for a top draft pick if things don’t turn around quickly.

KRAVTSOV SEIZES OPPORTUNITY:

First, though, a positive from the abysmal weekend was the play of Vitali Kravtsov, who looks right at home playing with his Russian counterpart Artemi Panarin.

The two connected on the opening goal of Friday’s game as Panarin fed him a pass to the shooting lane, and after his initial shot was blocked, Kravtsov followed up his initial shot, which was blocked and scored to get the boys going. Aside from the tally, Kravstov was fearless and consistently drove offensive zone play in both tilts this weekend. He has good instincts yet lacks the muscle in board battles which will improve with time as long as he continues to receive opportunities.

However, the fact a developmental talent is in the top six is extremely telling of where this dysfunctional team is at the moment, especially as an offense. Players don’t seem to trust each other, are tedious with puck management, and are often too passive for fans’ liking, as was the case in the Chicago game on Saturday.

TARDINESS;

Following the Rangers third period collapse at the Garden against Edmonton last week, an Oilers fan contacted me, proclaiming not to read so much into it and that his team does this to everyone. “That’s how the Oilers play.  They don’t show up for the first period and always let in the first goal. They start warming up by the second before making a game of it in the third. Sometimes they run out of time. But a majority of Oilers’ wins are always third-period comebacks. They’ve only scored the first goal twice all year.”

Maybe Edmonton can afford to show up fashionably late night after night with their offensive firepower but not these Rangers. Although they scored first against Ottawa, they failed to turn it into much more. Then they were on the back foot early against Chicago when Libor Hajek turned the puck over in the defensive zone. Reese Jonhson capitalized, tipping Jake Mccabe’s shot past Jaroslav Halak to give the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead just 2:15 into the contest. In their 25 games this season, the Rangers have yielded the first goal in 12 of them, which is unacceptable for a team with cup-contending aspirations. Those groups usually set tones and jump on top of you first rather than getting behind the eight-ball.

SHODDY SPECIAL TEAMS:

Despite the early season struggles, at least the Rangers had their special teams play to prop as a silver lining. But now, even that has dissipated. The power play showed early signs of refusing to react to different defensive outlooks and create something other than their patented play of a Zibanejad one-timer this season. It has dropped them to 22nd in the league. Meanwhile, the penalty kill allowed three power-play goals, two of which happened within minutes against the Blackhawks, putting the Blueshirts in a 3-0 second-period hole, which proved too big to overcome.

CAN’T CLOSE TO POSE:

Even when the Rangers grab ahold of games, they still find ways to lose, and you can add Friday’s loss against the Senators to the despair collection. Despite not being at their best, New York received stellar goaltending from Igor Shesterkin and was a minute away from sweeping the home-home series from the Senators. But Brady Tkchahuk tied it with 48 seconds left in regulation before slipping the disc past Igor in overtime to give Ottawa the victory.

The blown lead was the Ranger’s sixth in nine games, and considering they need all the wins they can get if they want back into the contender’s conversation, picking up a loser’s point against a cellar dweller won’t do you much good.

The unraveling late in games seems like a mental problem more than a Gerard Gallant one, primarily because of the way players fold after hitting posts or the crossbar. The Rangers are among the league leaders in goalposts this year and have the individual league leader in Vincent Trochcek, who has rung iron nine times himself. But as Adam Fox said, “It shakes our confidence., but with how much it happens, you’d think they’d be used to it by now.”

It epitomizes how much the team is spoiled by their issues being masked by a superhuman Shesterkin. They’re mentally stuck in the success story from last year but need to realize that it’s not the same Igor, and the burden has worn on him. It’s time for someone else to step up and put this team on the correct path to the greatness they have the potential to eclipse.

DON’T POKE THE TROUBADOUR:

Regardless of all the disdain he receives on here Jacob Trouba knows how to rile a team up and is suitable for the role of captain despite his poor play.

He exemplified his role as players coach on the ice by wrestling Tkachuk on Friday, then dropped the gloves with Jujhar Karia on Saturday. When that didn’t seem to jumpstart his teammates, he laid out Andrea Athanasiou(At least he didn’t injure him like he did last year), which drew a power play after Jonathan Toews chose to mix it up with the enraged Rangers defenseman and was called for instigating.

As he skated towards the locker room late in the second period, Trouba flung his helmet and yelled, “Wake up” to his bench, and like a true captain, provided the emotion this reeling bunch desperately needed.

It did momentarily as Mika Zibanejad clapped a power-play goal home late in the frame. Still, it flattened over the intermission and was extinguished when Chicago potted their third power-play goal early in the final frame, stretching their lead to 4-1.

A distraught Trouba was mainly at a loss for words in his postgame interview. However, the comments he got out accused the team of not being emotionally invested enough to accrue positives even when things are bleak. According to him, they’re trying to out-skill teams rather than looking to out-will them.  “We’re going through it.

There’s a lot of the story left to be written. It’s not a done thing by any means, but it’s going on for a bit now, and something needs to change. There needs to be a little more pushback from ourselves within. “It’s a result league. You have to win hockey games. You’ve got to play with some emotion, some energy. We need a little bit more of that.”