Rangers in midst of yet another tough skid with Canadiens on deck

The New York Rangers expressed satisfaction with their performance when they took the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights in overtime on a home back-to-back set last week, but the follow-up was highly disappointing.

The New York Rangers expressed satisfaction with their performance when they took the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights in overtime on a home back-to-back set last week, but the follow-up was highly disappointing.

Coming off one of their more lackluster showings of a middling season, the Rangers will attempt to avoid a fourth straight loss Saturday night when they host the Montreal Canadiens.

New York is on its fourth three-game losing streak through its first 32 games. The Rangers' lone four-game skid occurred with four regulation losses from Nov. 16-22.

New York won five of six after the previous four-game skid before allowing overtime goals to stars Nathan MacKinnon and Jack Eichel last weekend. On Wednesday, the Rangers were blanked for the sixth time when they mustered 21 shots on goal in a 3-0 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, who returned home after being outscored 13-1 in their previous two games.

"All of the stuff that we've done and that we've talked about, none of that happened today," New York's Mika Zibanejad said. "It's just disappointing. I could waste your time trying to make it sound good or kind of -- it's just bad. It's a bad game."

Zibanejad's harsh criticism occurred after the Rangers were held to 25 shots on goal or less for the 15th time. New York also was 0-for-3 on the power play and is scoreless in 13 straight man advantages since Zibanejad scored twice in a span of 45 seconds in the second period of a 6-2 win at Boston on Nov. 28.

Eleven of those power plays have occurred since Adam Fox was placed on long-term injured reserve with a left shoulder injury. To compensate for the top defenseman's absence, the Rangers have used five forwards on power plays, and on Wednesday, they gave up a short-handed goal after Zibanejad whiffed on a pass.

"It's disappointing because we just go through a stretch where we play some of the -- what we would deem some of the best teams in the league, and we put a game on the ice that's pretty damn competitive," New York coach Mike Sullivan said. "And we've got to be able to do that consistently, night in and night out. And that's our challenge. We took a step back tonight. We didn't bring that game."

Montreal is 6-8-1 in its past 15 games since starting 10-3-2. However, the Canadiens are 6-4-0 in their past 10 since dropping five straight from Nov. 11-20 and are coming off a 4-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday.

Montreal is 6-1-2 in its past nine road games after Brendan Gallagher and Cole Caufield scored in the second period versus Pittsburgh to support a 36-save performance from Jacob Fowler in his NHL debut. Although Fowler allowed a power-play goal, he made 15 saves during six Pittsburgh man advantages. Jakub Dobes and Sam Montembeault combined to allow six goals on 27 shots in Tuesday's 6-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Caufield has scored in three of his past four games after getting two goals in his previous 11 games, while Gallagher scored his second goal of the season.

"It's always nice to contribute," Gallagher said. "But just nice to win a hockey game here. I thought a lot of guys put in a good effort tonight. If it continues, we'll be in a good spot."

New York is 9-2-2 in the teams' past 13 meetings and scored three goals in the first 5:51 of the third period in its 4-3 comeback win in Montreal on Oct. 18.

--Field Level Media