Olli Jokinen celebrates a goal in the third period with teammates.
AP Photo/Kathy Willens

One step forward. One step back. That’s the Ranger season so far in a nutshell. Two days removed from Chris Kreider’s hat trick performance against former coach John Tortorella’s Canucks, they were brutal during a deflating 5-2 loss to Winnipeg at lifeless MSG. How else to sum up a night’s frustration? Aggravating, disappointing and lackadaisical all come to mind.

There’s no rationale for why they had a stinker coming off such a statement game. Then again, this is what the Rangers are. Twenty-eight games into Alain Vigneault’s first year, it’s a mediocre 14-14-0 clinging onto third in a weak Metro Division backed by the Devils’ 3-2 loss at Montreal. That includes an inexplicable 5-6-0 record at a remodeled Garden lacking in atmosphere. Whatever the reason, James Dolan’s renovation has backfired. No one is intimidated by the World’s Most Famous Arena. Or to quote a buddy, the World’s Most Renovated Arena. Whenever opponents are asked about playing at the Garden, they’re filled with excitement. Perhaps that’s because the Rangers and Knicks wave the welcome mat so easily. What ever happened to defending your turf?

Gone are the days when the building had pulsating energy with our fans inspiring its own. Instead, it’s been replaced by empty seats and a more comatose environment. That’s still no excuse for the Blueshirts to play so uninspired against a beatable opponent. Of course, it was basically like facing themselves. Winnipeg entered 12-12-4 without injured power forward Evander Kane. No matter. Leave it to the Rangers to give up a first goal to John Albert (who?) and fourth liner Chris Thorburn’s first two points (2 assists) of the year. Even more appropriately, ’10-11 ghost Olli Jokinen tallied twice including the game-winner and insurance marker that spoiled rookie Cam Talbot’s second consecutive start. He also allowed over two goals for the first time in eight starts and of course got predictably blamed. As if Henrik Lundqvist would’ve done better the way the team played. Appalling.

”I thought I felt all right, still not where I wanted to be,” Talbot lamented after making 25 saves in a losing effort. ”Four goals is not going to cut it. I can’t expect the guys to go and score five goals for me every night.”

Of course, he is being a team player here. It had more to do with how poor the Rangers were defensively. They were careless with and without the puck paying dearly for sloppy turnovers and dreadful coverage. The stat sheet says they outshot the Jets 37-30. Whoopee. That gets you nowhere when you don’t pay attention to every detail. The night got off to a promising start when Mats Zuccarello deflected home a Ryan McDonagh point shot for his fourth just 2:49 into the match. It extended Zuccarello’s point streak to four and kept McDonagh’s recent offensive surge rolling. Speaking of which, he was their best player. If only others mounted the energy Mac Truck brings more consistently.

Despite grabbing a 1-0 lead, the Rangers fell into bad habits. It was the Jets who came back with consecutive strong shifts. Even with our team buzzing, Ondrej Pavelec kept them at bay. Another mediocre goalie who turned into a star on Broadway. He finished with 35 saves and was named the game’s third star. No disrespect. But haven’t we seen this script before? They had no trouble chasing Roberto Luongo and putting up five against the former coach. The one a misguided press treats like Scrooge despite the team’s only appearance in the Conference Final since ’97. Makes about as much sense as the MSG apologists who apparently blamed the lack of atmosphere due to a “non-conference opponent.” Winnipeg abused us when they played in the East too as the Atlanta Thrashers. Selective memory.

Once the Jets found their sea legs, they had no problem figuring out a soft defense that’s been exposed plenty playing a more wide open style. That’s the risk. It still doesn’t fully explain undisciplined turnovers and lazy backchecks. The first two Winnipeg goals were point blank chances. Devin Setoguchi converted his seventh on an odd-man rush. Guess who set it up. Jokinen. He fed Setoguchi, who let go of a laser that tied it. Ironically, a one-sided scrap might’ve woken them up. Since Vigneault inserted Justin Falk into the lineup, he’s been in to supply needed energy and toughness. In for John Moore again, he made the mistake of challenging Anthony Peluso, who proceeded to destroy him with several rights. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea.

A horrible giveaway from Derick Brassard led to Winnipeg’s second goal of the middle stanza. As talented as he is, sometimes Brassard still shows why Columbus gave up on him. He’s had several bad turnovers that have led to goals against. I guess old habits die hard with former coach Scott Arniel as a current Ranger assistant. A blind giveaway inside the Jets’ blueline allowed Dustin Byfuglien to push the puck ahead forward for Albert, who broke in and beat Talbot top shelf. If there’s an area he has to work on, it’s stopping breakaways. He needs to challenge more. Despite that, he came up with several key saves which allowed Ryan Callahan to finally score a goal. The captain had been struggling recently. But sheer determination resulted in his seventh on a goal mouth scramble set up by Brad Richards and Benoit Pouliot.

With the game knotted after two, you would’ve thought the Rangers buoyed by Callahan’s huge goal would come out and dominate the third. Not this team. They didn’t register a shot the first six minutes. Eventually, they generated opportunities. For the most part, the lines were good offensively except when it came to finishing. Rick Nash had a few close calls. Derek Stepan failed on a breakaway. And Chris Kreider passed up a chance to shoot instead trying to feed a cutting Stepan. When they’re not going well, they tend to overpass and not shoot. Simple is more effective. I didn’t like that aspect of their game.

Jokinen’s game-winner was a bad break. An odd dump took a funny carom. The next thing you know, Setoguchi and Thorburn combined to set up Jokinen, who beat Talbot from in front with nobody on him. Of course, Talbot didn’t make any excuses.

”Their guy just kind of rimmed it back behind the net,” he said. ”I think it hit his skate right behind and ricocheted off and went out front. It actually did hit my stick, but it ended up right back at front.

”That’s my fault. I’ve got to put it right back to the corner,” he added.

Outside of McDonagh and Anton Stralman, the blueline played like crap. Mike Del Zotto was on for three goals against including Jokinen’s put away which came with 1:54 left. Regarding Del Zotto, the first two goals weren’t his fault. However, he screwed up by getting caught pinching. The Jets countered with Jacob Trouba sending Michael Frolik on a two-on-one with Jokinen. After Talbot looked to have the initial save, Jokinen slipped it thru the five-hole for the crusher. It was the only bad goal he gave up. Yet all you hear from some of our fans is how Lundqvist should’ve started. It reminds me of the same warped logic for blaming Jokinen for his failed shootout miss that eliminated us against the Flyers. What about the goalie? He lost to a journeyman in a glorified skill competition.

”Obviously, he didn’t make the same amount of saves that he had done in the past,” Vigneault duly noted, ”but we certainly made his life challenging by how we played in front of him.”

For good measure, Blake Wheeler added an empty netter. Ironically, my Dad went because he couldn’t sell the ticket. But he left after two because he saw it coming. Had I gone, we’d have stayed. My next game is my birthday on Sunday against the Capitals. Knowing our luck, Troy Brouwer will score the winner. Oh joy.

BONY 3 Stars:

3rd Star-Devin Setoguchi, WPG (goal, assist, +2 in 14:02)

2nd Star-Ryan McDonagh, NYR (assist, 2 SOG, 2 takeaways, Even Rating in 24:22-also made a great keep on Callahan tally)

1st Star-Olli Jokinen, WPG (2 goals-5th, 6th incl. GW, assist, 5 SOG, +3 in 15:23)