The Rangers have repeatedly failed to help themselves.
On a night when four teams within arm’s length of them in the Eastern Conference wild-card race were also playing, the Blueshirts seemed to have nothing in the tank in a 2-1 loss to the also-playoff-chasing Flames on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
A chance to maintain their position in the second wild card could not be achieved against a Calgary team using its backup goalie on the second night of a back-to-back slate.
The Rangers, who fell out of playoff position, were held to five shots, three shots and five shots in each period, respectively.
Madison Square Garden booed their lone embarrassing power play.
A smattering of heckles ushered them off the ice after a lopsided middle frame.
And the jeering chorus struck up again as they left the ice at the final horn.
The win allowed the Flames to snap a three-game losing skid and temporarily move into a two-way tie with the Canucks for the second wild-card spot in the West at 73 points, before Vancouver squared off with the Jets later Tuesday night.
Since the Canadiens beat the Senators Tuesday night, Montreal took over the second wild-card spot from the Rangers.
The Rangers’ energy was imposing at the very start, but quickly fizzled and never returned after they opened the scoring.
Artemi Panarin whipped in his 30th goal of the season from the left circle less than 2 ½ minutes in, giving the Rangers a 1-0 lead and extending his point streak to 10 games.
It was all Flames from there on.
The visitors ended up outscoring the Blueshirts 2-1 and outshooting them 15-5 through the opening 20 minutes.
Calgary caused havoc around the Rangers net all game.
Nazem Kadri capitalized on their net-front efforts first, swooping in and burying the third Flames rebound of the shift to even the score at one-all at the 10:22 mark.
With Matt Rempe in the box for elbowing later in the first frame, the Flames needed just 17 seconds to capitalize on the power play.
Matt Coronato, all alone in the slot, ripped one home to give Calgary their first lead of the night.
Despite a scoreless second period, the Flames limited the Rangers to just three shots on goal through the middle frame.
After recording 11 giveaways in the first, the Rangers committed five more the following period on account of how little they had the puck.
Tensions began to rise after J.T. Miller took a stick below the belt at the end of the opening frame.
It only escalated from there, with Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson chirping at Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin a couple of times.
The only team it seemed to invigorate, however, was the Flames.
