Maybe there was some bad juju left over at the Garden from the Knicks’ deflating Game 7 loss to the Pacers on Sunday.
This was a tough and frustrating night for the Rangers and their Stanley Cup-starved faithful who packed the storied building, and were particularly loud in anticipation of so much more than they got — similar to the Knicks’ crowd Sunday, minus the desperation that came with facing the possibility of an end to a marvelous playoff run.
Yes, Wednesday night’s 3-0 loss to the Panthers in Game 1 of the conference final wasn’t the end for the Rangers as Sunday was for the Knicks. But it was still deflating.
And a poor tone-setter to a series that already figured to be a significant mountain to climb against a step-up-in-competition opponent that was the Stanley Cup runner-up a year ago and believes it has a score to settle.
It’s difficult to decipher which of the Rangers’ failed close calls in the game kept them from sleeping once they got home after the game.
Because there was a fair share of them — each worth lamenting and wondering what might have been.
“I don’t think that was the best version of ourselves,’’ Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “We can play better. I think there’s more for us to give. We had opportunities early. We could have executed better.’’
The Rangers didn’t have of a lot of shots on goal in the game, just 23, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t have their chances. Among the best of those came as the second period was about to end.
Artemi Panarin worked the puck into the Florida zone and passed it to Adam Fox, who fed Mika Zibanejad in his office — at the left dot.
Zibanejad unloaded a shot, low and hard, to toward the right post of Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who kicked it aside a split second before the horn sounded.
The play came on the Rangers’ only power play of the first two periods, and the Bobrovsky save kept it 1-0 Panthers.
“That power-play chance for Zibanejad was an incredible save,’’ Panthers coach Paul Maurice said.
“We have to look at ourselves,’’ Chris Kreider, the Game 6 hero from the Carolina series, said after producing two quiet shots on net in 19:39 of ice time. “We have to do better, and I think there’s room for improvement to raise our level.’’
The Rangers scoring chances began early. Their first was a blast off the stick of Vincent Trocheck less than five minutes into the game that hit Bobrovsky’s mask so hard it knocked it off and appeared to daze him for a moment.
With just more than six minutes remaining in the first period, Alexis Lafreniere took a feed from Panarin and, beating former Rangers defenseman Niko Mikkola, unleashed a sneaky shot that was saved by Bobrovsky.
Three minutes after that, the Panthers took a 1-0 lead on a Matthew Tkachuk goal, which game with Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin screened by Fox as Tkachuk’s lefty shot went in with 3:34 remaining in the first.
That’s when the Rangers got their worst break of the night. Defenseman Braden Schneider, on a breakaway, rattled the right post with a laser that had Bobrovsky beaten with 2:19 remaining in the first.
The Rangers had yet another breakaway chance fewer than two minutes into the second period when Will Cuylle skated in alone on Bobrovsky and was stoned by the netminder’s pads.
Lafreniere, who’s had such a terrific postseason with such growth shown, had an open shot on Bobrovsky that he rifled high off the glass.
It was the story of the night for the Rangers, who have now handed the precious home-ice advantage over to Florida as the teams ready for Friday night’s Game 2, which becomes critical for the Blueshirts.
“It’s tough to score at this point of the year, because all the games are going to be tight,’’ Rangers wing Jimmy Vesey said.
“I think we have a tendency to sometimes try to do a little too much when it’s not there,’’ Kreider said, implying that the Rangers were pressing as the game wore on with so few shots and Bobrovsky not yielding anything.
With 7:15 remaining in the game, Rangers center Alexander Wennberg had two point-blank chances on goal and was denied both times. Wennberg then deflected a Lafreniere shot that hit the post.
For those scoring at home, that was the second post the Rangers hit in the game. Puck luck. Or bad luck.
Bad juju at the Garden.
