Alex Steen scores his 26th as Ryan McDonagh, Chris Kreider and Henrik Lundqvist watch helplessly.
Getty Images/Kathy Willens

The Rangers lost their second straight game falling to St. Louis 2-1 last night. It definitely looked like a winnable game. Sure. The Blues are one of the league’s best and everyone knew they’d be tough to beat following their mistimed blowout at New Jersey. However, it was their third game in four nights. Our team still should’ve won. Instead, they’ll take a two-game losing streak into the Stadium Series. The first part comes Sunday against the Devils at Yankee Stadium. Part II next Wednesday versus the Islanders.

The trouble with losing games is they didn’t get any brownie points. Even though I’m against the current system, not at least getting this one or a frustrating Islander loss into overtime hurts. It’s stopped their momentum. Even with Rick Nash continuing his hot stretch by extending to a four-game goal streak, it wasn’t enough to win. They wasted three Nash goals in the last two home games. With things so tight, they can ill afford to follow their best play so far with a cold one. Especially with what’s coming up. The Devils and Islanders remain behind in the standings but have more games left. So do the suddenly white hot Blue Jackets- 5-2 winners to pull within a point. At least the Flyers suddenly have cooled off. But the Hurricanes won again and are playing better.

Since I missed this game due to a late shift, I was able to catch the replay on MSG. Costly mistakes were the difference. A blown coverage led to Alex Steen’s 26th in the first. Neither Ryan McDonagh nor Dan Girardi took him in front. Steen was completely forgotten about and Chris Kreider was too late. That allowed a stingy defensive team to grab an early lead. Against a team that had their worst game of the season, that was a bad recipe. Even with them generating chances on Jaroslav Halak, it took a perfect play to beat him late in the second.

On a strong forecheck that McDonagh helped keep alive, he worked the puck to Derek Stepan. Stepan has played much better. He made a great centering feed for a wicked Nash one-timer that blew past Halak for the equalizer. Brad Richards had a golden opportunity to put them in front but his point blank chance went off Halak’s mask with time to spare. There were other opportunities on the power play but the Rangers missed wide a couple of different times. You can’t afford not to cash those.

The Blues made the most of theirs early in the third. With Nash off for a questionable slash, Kevin Shattenkirk’s one-timer thru a perfect David Backes screen beat Henrik Lundqvist. Backes won the faceoff clean and it took only nine seconds for Alex Pietrangelo to set up Shattenkirk’s power play blast. A diehard Ranger fan growing up who idolized Brian Leetch, Shattenkirk had his own cheering section at the game.

Prior to that tally, the Rangers blew a man-advantage. They received one more but couldn’t solve Halak, whose best save of the period came on Ryan Callahan at even strength. After getting 28 shots through on Halak, they only managed seven in the deciding period. Even with Lundqvist pulled, they didn’t get it tied. They applied pressure but were defended well by a Cup contender. After missing consecutive games, Lundqvist returned from illness finishing with 23 saves. Halak had 34.

Notes: Newest Blueshirt Kevin Klein debuted. Wearing number 8, the former Nashville defenseman split time with John Moore and Marc Staal. He took 24 shifts with one shot, takeaway and two blocked shots in 15:46. The player he was traded for, Mike Del Zotto also debuted for Nashville in their 2-1 win at Vancouver. Wearing No.18, he had 17 shifts registering a shot, two blocks, a hit and takeaway. Contrary to Joe Micheletti’s assertion, he didn’t look out of place pairing with rookie Seth Jones.