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The fully-loaded top-six the Rangers assembled by way of two big-name acquisitions at the trade deadline must’ve left their dynamic play in New Jersey.
Since the first two games at Prudential Center, the Rangers have only gotten two goals — one in each contest — from their top two lines.
“That was the difference,” head coach Gerard Gallant said when asked about his top guns failing to lead the way after the Rangers’ 3-1 loss to the Devils in Game 4 on Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
That’s not to say these two disappointing defeats on home ice, which have squared the series at two games apiece, all fall on the shoulders of Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Patrick Kane, Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck and Vladimir Tarasenko.
It was a letdown effort from the entire lineup.
Between the lack of production from the power play and the lack of secondary scoring, the Rangers haven’t been able to survive on the two total goals they received from members of the top-six, Kreider and Trocheck.
For the first two lines to go from their explosiveness and decisiveness with the puck in the first two contests to the passiveness and listlessness with which they played in the next two has been glaring.
