Rangers show fight but still are searching for elusive first win

BUFFALO — Take two.

Or, in this case, none.

The Rangers head to Carolina for a Sunday evening match against the Candy Canes seeking to avoid the club’s first 0-3 start since the doomed 1998-99 club opened with four straight regulation losses.

That’s the scenario in the wake of Saturday’s 3-1 defeat here to the Sabres in which the Blueshirts generated 44 shots against Carter Hutton but committed a few too many mistakes at key times while failing to come up with enough key plays at essential junctures.

“We should be happy with how hard we played and the amount of chances we had, and we should be happy with that, but in this league it is not about playing great, it’s about making key plays at the right time and finding ways to win,” said a comparatively upbeat Henrik Lundqvist. “It’s getting the big save and goal at the right time.

“We’re a good enough team. Overall, we’re there. We have to make the other team pay. We have to find the way.”

David Quinn, who never started 0-2 as the head man behind the BU bench, sat Kevin Hayes for huge swaths of the final two periods, stapling him to the bench for all but 5:41 (3:47 at even-strength) of the final 40 minutes. The coaching staff has been focused on getting Hayes to move his feet and skate. Apparently, he did not do enough of that to keep his spot between Jimmy Vesey and Mats Zuccarello.

Similarly, while the Mika Zibanejad-Chris Kreider-Pavel Buchnevich unit struggled again to create at even-strength, the coach kept Kreider on the bench down the stretch until the club pulled Lundqvist for the extra attacker.

Who swallowed up extra time? The kids, Filip Chytil and Brett Howden, did. New day on Broadway.

“I was trying to find different combinations and chemistry,” said Quinn. “I went with the guys I thought would give us our best chance.”

The Rangers defended well in front of Lundqvist, who was sharp while facing 28 shots before Jack Eichel sealed it with a late empty-netter. The Blueshirts had reasonable control of the front and broke out reasonably well, too.

Though Hutton made a few outstanding stops — including one on Howden from the doorstep on a 3-on-0 with Ryan Spooner and Jesper Fast at 4:54 of the second period — the Rangers were just a step shy.

“I think we played a pretty good game. We worked hard, but we’re having trouble producing,” said Fast. “It seems like we’re chasing the puck too much.”

The Rangers are not only chasing the puck, they’ve been chasing games, yet to lead in 120 minutes of hockey. Offensively challenged to begin with, they have little margin for error. Unfortunately, they made two too many mistakes on their penalty kill, allowing a pair of power-play goals to Connor Sheary to fall behind 2-0 by the 1:42 mark of the second period.

They got caught over-chasing the puck in the neutral zone on the first one at 13:15 of the first before Eichel dipsy-doodled past Zibanejad on a one-on-one in the left circle before threading a pass across to Sheary on the second one.

That was one too many mistakes for the Blueshirts to overcome, even when Howden jammed in a rebound off an Adam McQuaid drive to cut the margin to 2-1 with 4:39 remaining in the match. The Rangers maintained possession in the offensive zone but the Sabres, blanked by the Bruins in their opener on Thursday, survived without needing undue heroics from their goaltender.

“At the end of the day, it’s a game of taking advantage of your opportunities,” said Quinn. “We made progress, but we didn’t play enough winning hockey.”

So now it is on to Carolina. The Rangers aren’t panicking, but a reward for their efforts would be most welcome. So would production from the team’s marquee forwards.

“No one is losing confidence or is getting discouraged,” Fast said. “But we need to end this losing streak now.”