Hartnett: Rangers' Effort Has Not Been The Issue During Mediocre Run

By Sean Hartnett
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Resiliency is an important characteristic of any NHL contender.

After falling to the rival Islanders 4-2 on Tuesday night at Barclays Center, the Rangers took a deep look at the positives they saw over the course of 60 minutes, as well as the elements of their game requiring improvement.

Effort wasn't a question. Neither was their ability to move the puck quickly to generate Grade-A scoring chances. Sometimes teams run into a hot goalie. Isles netminder Jaroslav Halak certainly was on top of his game throughout his 36-save effort.

"I've got a lot of positives I think our group can take from this," alternate captain Derek Stepan said. "We did do a lot of good things. We've just got to find a way to convert. Our group of guys really worked hard tonight and we came out on the wrong side of it, but that's going to happen in an 82-game schedule.

"We had an empty net, their guys made saves, we hit shafts with sticks, their goaltender made some good saves -- we did everything but score," he continued. "We've got to find a way to do it. As a group, you can take out of it that we did a lot of good things with puck movement and shooting pucks. We shot everything. We missed some nets and got pucks back and we were hard on the pucks. We made plays. We just weren't able to convert."

Over their last eight games dating to Nov. 21, nailing down consecutive victories has proven elusive. With Pavel Buchnevich and Mika Zibanejad still weeks away from returning to the lineup, it's all about embracing the next-man-up mentality. Injuries to Rick Nash and Matt Puempel forced the Rangers to persevere with 10 forwards for much of Tuesday's game.

"We were short a couple of bodies, but that's not an excuse," head coach Alain Vigneault said. "You've got to find ways. We battled hard, but just weren't able to finish when we had the opportunity. It's not about frustration. It's about winning and losing. We didn't win tonight, so we're going to have to learn from this game and work on the areas we need to work on tomorrow and get ready for our next game in Winnipeg."

The Rangers are hoping for positive news on the injury front. Neither Puempel nor Nash returned Tuesday after heading to the dressing room. Puempel received a high stick to the face from Brock Nelson in the first period, while Nash suffered what Vigneault later described as a "tweaked groin" and left the game at 6:38 of the second period.

Vigneault said the team will know more about Nash's injury on Wednesday. The 55-year-old coach also confirmed that Puempel suffered a concussion and is undergoing standard, league-mandated concussion protocol.

While Tuesday's 0-for-6 effort on the power play appears to be a glaring negative on paper, fans should be encouraged by the Rangers' puck movement and creativity. If they can continue keeping their feet active and generating quality chances, their power play luck should even out.

"Our power play gives us a lot of momentum," alternate captain Dan Girardi said. "I think we had a lot of good looks in the first (period) with our power play. Obviously, (Halak) made some huge, point-blank saves that could change the game right there. It was good for the most part, our power play was pretty solid. We just couldn't get one."

While a frustrating defeat to rival Isles definitely sticks in the craw of Rangers fans, the main takeaway is that the Blueshirts showed plenty of resolve when they went down to 10 forwards. With a favorable bounce here or there on the power play, they could have eked out a victory.

Follow Sean on Twitter at @HartnettHockey