Shattenkirk injured as Rangers are outclassed by Lightning

TAMPA, Fla. — A game such as this highlights the disparity in talent between the hard-working Rangers and the NHL’s elite.

For though the Blueshirts should be proud of the battle level and work ethic they displayed here Monday night, they just could not match the Lightning’s upper-echelon skill level in a 6-3 defeat to the NHL’s first-overall squad.

“It probably sounds counterintuitive but I thought we took a step forward,” Chris Kreider said. “We can’t hang our heads.”

The Blueshirts hung with the Lightning through two periods, down only 3-2 despite creating only four offensive zone five-on-five faceoffs to Tampa Bay’s 18, and despite going with five defensemen after Kevin Shattenkirk left the match at the 5:01 mark of the second period with a left shoulder injury he sustained on a hit from J.T. Miller.

Shattenkirk, who left the rink with his shoulder in a sling, will be sidelined for an indefinite period. The Rangers could install healthy scratch Brendan Smith into the lineup for Friday’s match at home against the Coyotes or they might dip into the AHL and promote either Ryan Lindgren or Libor Hajek from the Wolf Pack. Management has some time to make the decision.

But regardless of the personnel call, the Blueshirts have little chance to sustain success if they continue to spend as much time killing penalties and as little time on the power play as they have the past few weeks. Tampa Bay had six power plays to the Rangers’ one. Over the past three games, the disparity is four man-advantages for and 14 against.

“When you’re playing the best teams, you can get away with a win if you play smart and within the rules,” said Henrik Lundqvist, scorched for a hat trick by Steven Stamkos, two on the power play. “I can’t say whether they were the right calls or not, but when you give up odd-man rushes and take that many penalties, you’re not going to beat the best teams. That’s the way it is.

“We worked hard and did a lot of good things. But you have to play strict and smart and make the right decisions. I hope we learned a lesson.”

In order for the Rangers to beat the best teams, they also need pristine goaltending. They did not get that from Lundqvist, who had an uneven swing through Florida, allowing 12 goals in the past three games and may be in need of a rest. The netminder allowed a dreadful one to Ryan McDonagh at 12:42 of the second to snap a 2-2 tie, the former New York captain beating him low from the left circle on a routine snapper.

“I knew I was in trouble right away,” Lundqvist said. “It was a bad read. I saw his stick and thought he was going high.”

Kevin Hayes, whose value increases by the day in this cash-register season, scored twice in the first period as the Blueshirts gained a 2-1 lead while battling for every inch on the ice. But Stamkos, who’d scored on a power-play one-timer in the first, did it again at 6:19 of the second to knot the score moments after Hayes was denied on a shorthanded two-on-one by netminder Louis Domingue. McDonagh’s goal broke the tie in a period in which the Rangers barely had the puck and failed to register a shot over the final 9:41.

But the Lightning withstood an early third-period charge to put it away, with Anthony Cirelli making it 4-2 at 10:17 after stripping Freddy Claesson and Stamkos getting the hat-trick goal just 24 seconds later. The victory extended Tampa Bay’s winning streak to seven, during which they have scored 36 goals. The Lightning have scored five goals or more in eight of their past 11 games while going 10-1.

In other words, they don’t need their opponents’ help, which is exactly what they got from their overmatched, if game, foes.

“A couple of the penalties were really unnecessary on our part,” David Quinn said. “If we’re going to have a chance night in and night out, we can’t have that [power-play] disparity. It’s not a recipe for success in this league or any league.”

The Rangers are taking too many penalties and drawing too few. When a team doesn’t have the puck, it is not going to get calls, even if it certainly deserved more than the one man-advantage it was awarded. Case in point: There was no call when Braydon Coburn cross-checked Vladislav Namestnikov three times during a puck battle nine minutes into the third when it was still 3-2.

But that’s the fine print. The larger issue is the talent disparity. Sometimes hard work just is not enough.