Rather than do a conventional recap, I’ll just give a brief summary of both BONY teams. Being that I missed the Ranger debacle in Carolina, I didn’t get to see any lowlights. Thankfully, I found the first two Hurricanes goals on YouTube courtesy NHL Video. Along with the rumblings from fan bloggers and fans on Twitter, that was enough. Against an opponent they beat last week in Raleigh, the Rangers forgot to show falling 3-1 to the Canes.

It was a dreadful night for Marc Staal. Facing brothers Eric and Jordan, he went minus-three. On the first two goals against, it was more his fault than partner Anton Stralman. Let’s take a look at the Canes’ first goal scored by Jiri Tlusty.

On the play, the Rangers get caught scrambling. Following an Alex Semin backhand try that goes into the corner, he quickly recovers the puck pushing it up the wall to a pinching Andrej Sekera. Sekera moves it back down to Jordan Staal trapping three Blueshirts including Marc Staal, who goes to Semin instead of allowing Derek Stepan to take him. Both players went to Semin leaving Jordan Staal alone to gather the puck and create a two on one down low. He held the puck which froze a sliding Stralman allowing Tlusty to bury a perfect set up. No chance for Henrik Lundqvist.

Astonishingly, Kevin Klein was the lone goal scorer. He actually got his first before Michael Del Zotto. Mats Zuccarello and Benoit Pouliot assisted. Still tied at one, another Staal brain cramp led directly to brother Jordan’s game-winner. The “top line” of Stepan, Chris Kreider and Rick Nash were again victimized. Here is a closer look at what transpired.

With under two minutes left in the second period, Stepan was unable to keep the puck in at the left point. Staal and Stralman were back. However, Staal missed the puck off the glass in the neutral zone trapping him. With the other three forwards stuck in the Carolina end, that left Stralman on his lonesome to again defend a two on one between Jordan Staal and Tlusty. This time, they worked a give and go with Staal on the receiving end of a Tlusty feed for a tap in.

Those two goals indicate how out of sorts the Rangers were. Facing former Conn Smythe winner Cam Ward, all they could muster were 25 shots. Even for the struggling netminder who has lost his starting job to Anton Khudobin, that’s a light night. Since being acquired at last week’s trade deadline, Martin St. Louis has one assist in four games. Ryan Callahan has two. They need St. Louis to be a difference maker. Their next game is at Minnesota tomorrow. That won’t be easy. Zach Parise is on fire and the Wild are in their own playoff race.