Danny Knobler | Special to ESPNNewYork.com 9y

Rangers' bad night no cause for concern

NEW YORK -- Last June is a long time ago, and this June is still a long ways away.

What happened to the New York Rangers Tuesday night had little to do with either one. The Rangers had a rare bad night in their 4-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings, and if the opponent wasn't irrelevant, it was hardly a cause for concern, either.

The Kings are the same team that beat the Rangers in the Stanley Cup finals, but the circumstances are so different now that the Rangers seemed to treat Sunday's game with the Anaheim Ducks as a bigger deal than Tuesday's meeting with the Kings. They were at their best against the Ducks, who came in with the league's best record. They were at their worst -- recent worst, anyway -- Tuesday against the Kings.

"We had trouble everywhere," Derek Stepan said, when someone mentioned the lack of an effective forecheck. "It's very difficult to win hockey games in this league, especially down the stretch when teams are fighting to get into the playoffs. You have to be ready to compete at a high level.

"And we had a lot go wrong. We just didn't have it."

Earlier in the season, the Rangers had a few games like this, and when it happened too often there was plenty of soul-searching. But the Rangers have played as well as any team in the NHL for months; one bad game was hardly going to shake their confidence.

This was a bad one.

The Rangers scored in the game's first minute, but the Kings quickly took control. They had the puck constantly, and for parts of the first period and long parts of the second, the entire game seemed to be played in the Rangers' zone.

Cam Talbot didn't have his best game -- his giveaway led to the goal that put the Kings ahead 2-1 early in the second period -- but coach Alain Vigneault was right when he said Talbot wasn't really to blame for this loss. The Rangers allowed the Kings to have chance after chance, and eventually some of those chances were going to end up in the net.

"We were second on the puck, and we were second on one-on-ones," Vigneault said. "Our execution wasn't what it had to be against a strong opponent."

The Kings are a strong team, even though they're going to need a strong final few weeks to even make the playoffs. The way they played Tuesday will no doubt have plenty of potential playoff opponents hoping that they don't make it.

That list would include the Rangers, but June is too many days and too many games away to think much about a potential finals rematch. The Rangers wouldn't have minded helping knock the Kings out, but more because of those distant memories than because of what could lie ahead.

"You remember that," Dan Girardi said, referring to last June's finals loss. "We had a good chance to take a bite out of their playoff hopes."

The Rangers themselves don't need to worry about qualifying. Their magic number for clinching a playoff spot remained at four, but they have 10 games left on the schedule. They lost their spot atop the league standings to the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday, but the Rangers have two games in hand.

It's easy to think that the most significant Rangers development Tuesday was Henrik Lundqvist's return to practice for the morning skate, rather than the loss to the Kings.

Lundqvist's return could well have a lasting effect, and impact the Rangers' chances in the playoffs.

Tuesday night's loss almost certainly will not.

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