Mike Sullivan after another poor Rangers outing: “That’s not the game we want to put on the ice”

The New York Rangers' nightmare start at home continued on Thursday with a 6-5 overtime to a San Jose Sharks squad that skated onto the Madison Square Garden ice in search of their first win of the season. The Rangers trailed early, rallied back, went down, and got back in the game again, but an overall "piss poor" effort doomed the Blueshirts. Head coach Mike Sullivan didn't hold back in his assessment, and it's clear that something has to give.

Mike Sullivan issues targeted critique of his team

Sullivan addressed the media after the game, and he was unhappy with the overall effort, and some situational mistakes that plagued the team. The Blueshirts' bench boss was asked about a pair of late period goals and said, "It's just a lack of awareness, situational play, managing the game the right way. Controlling those situations is how you win. We obviously have to learn how to win."

The Rangers generated 2.73 xGF per Evolving-Hockey, and the Sharks generated 3.23 xGF, and that helps explain the end result of what was a wild 6-5 game. If you are a fan of MoneyPuck's "Deserve to Win O'Meter", the had the game 50.2% to 49.8% in favor of the Sharks.

Sullivan was also asked on whether or not this latest loss is something that is a bit of a wake-up call, and he responded, "It should be. It should be because I look at our last 2 outings and that's not the game that we want to put on the ice every night that we think will give us a chance to win, that's for sure. You can't play two thirds of the game or half of the game and think you're going to win consistently. The last two games that's what we did."

The Rangers were shutout during the first three home games at MSG, but at least you can say during those games they had some structure and were generating chances and simply not getting rewarded.

The loss against the Minnesota Wild saw they get outchanced and attempted early, and even though they got a little bit better as the game went on, ultimately they didn't get the job done. It was more of the same vs. the Sharks, and that simply can't happen.

Rangers stuffed stat sheet, but it didn't matter

The Rangers out shot the Sharks 27-2 in the loss, and that includes a 21-13 differential in the final two periods of regulation. Taylor Raddysh notched a hat trick, J.T. Miller had two assists, Mika Zibanejad and Juuso Parssinen scored a goal, and Alexis Lafreniere, Sam Carrick, and Conor Sheary had assists, but it still wasn't enough. Igor Shesterkin surrendered six goals after having allowed just seven goals the entire season to this point, and his goals against average dipped to 1.86, and his save percentage now sits at .930.

It speaks volumes that the Rangers were only in the game against the Sharks because of the contributions of the bottom six.. After nine games the top of table has Adam Fox with seven points, Artemi Panarin with seven points, Miller with six points, Zibanejad with five points, and then you have Raddysh with four points, Carrick with four points and Parssinen with three points. Lafrenière having just a goal and two assists is less than ideal, as is Will Cuylle having a lone goal in nine games. The Rangers' need everyone to start pulling their weight, and with the way the rest of their division has been playing... it is getting later early.

Blueshirts headed on road with hopes of growing closer together to string some wins together

The Blueshirts will not return to MSG until November 4th against the Carolina Hurricanes, and they have four games to try and get back on the right track. The journey begins on Sunday against the Calgary Flames, it continues on Tuesday in Vancouver, Thursday in Edmonton, and concludes on Saturday, November 1 in Seattle. The team is 3-0-1 on the road to start the season, and this trip can help the team try and pick up some points to salvage what has been an 0-4-1 start on home ice.