Three Rapid Takeaways from Saturday's 5-1 Loss Against Los Angeles

Well, that happened. A 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on a Saturday afternoon.

At this point, people are calling it how it is — the New York Rangers are a bad hockey team right now. They quite literally let the Kings (now 18-9-3) win despite having twice as many shots on goal in the second period — the Rangers had 14 compared to Los Angeles's seven.

The Blueshirts were better on the faceoff and both teams had the same amount of shots on goal, yet the Rangers still found a way to let the Kings come in to Madison Square Garden and deliver a final score of 5-1 anyway.

Here are three rapid takeaways from Saturday's afternoon loss:

Defensive Holes

Four of the five goals scored against the Rangers came off the rush – an Achilles’ heel for the Blueshirts for years now – and all five were tallied from either the net front or slot. The Kings had free rein over all of New York’s prime real estate, with defensemen consistently out of position and forwards treating backchecks as an option exercise. Clearly, the D corps has holes all over

The Problem is the Players

The same issues have persisted with three different voices behind the bench, leaving us to left to form really only one conclusion: This is a roster problem, not a Peter Laviolette coaching issue.

That falls on the players, who are talented in spots but slipping across all aspects of the board, and team president and general manager Chris Drury, needs to be desperately searching for answers after missing the boat on upgrades in previous offseasons.

The Only Silver Lining

With the Rangers only trailing by one in the first period, 28-year-old heavyweight Connor Mackey easily got his punches in against Kings' Samuel Helenius. Old school hockey fighting was on display, with plenty of punches being thrown. While the Rangers may have lost the game with a four-goal differential, at least Mackey clearly won the punching match.