The story remains the same. Once again, the New York Rangers came up short on the scoreboard. A day after getting humiliated at home by the Los Angeles Kings, a third period rally wasn’t enough to come back in a 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Sunday night.

Saturday’s result ended with a team meeting. Whatever Peter Laviolette was searching for, it didn’t materialize until the final period. Without Artemi Panarin (upper-body injury), Laviolette decided to healthy scratch Kaapo Kakko for the first time this season. Kakko had gone cold recently. However, making an example of him didn’t seem right. It could easily have been Mika Zibanejad or Chris Kreider. Both remained in the lineup. However, Kreider started the game on the fourth line.

Laviolette also decided to sit rookie Victor Mancini. Chad Ruhwedel played on the third pair. Every line was tweaked to start the game. Both Jonny Brodzinski and Jimmy Vesey returned to the lineup. Aside from Kreider playing with Sam Carrick and Adam Edstrom, Zibanejad started the game with Brett Berard and Vesey. Vincent Trocheck was between Brodzinski and Reilly Smith. Filip Chytil centered Will Cuylle and Alexis Lafreniere. On the blue line, Zac Jones was reunited with Braden Schneider, leaving Connor Mackey to play with Ruhwedel on the third pair.

A day removed from the Kings chasing Igor Shesterkin, Jonathan Quick got the start. It didn’t seem to matter. Even in a sloppy first period when the shots and chances were down, eventually a Rangers’ mistake wound up in the back of the net.

On what looked like the handling of a hand grenade, Brodzinski fumbled the puck until Robert Thomas took it away and fed Jake Neighbours, who then easily dished across for an easy Pavel Buchnevich finish that made it 1-0 Blues with 1:09 left. If you had a pulse, it was easy to predict that Buchnevich would score. I picked him to get the game’s first goal. He is a former Ranger who had success with Zibanejad and Kreider. Ever since, nobody they try with them fits.

There were follies in the second period. On a play in the neutral zone, Ryan Lindgren had his stick lifted by Jordan Kyrou, who then turned it into a breakaway goal. After Brayden Schenn and Alexey Toropchenko combined to send the puck into the neutral zone, Lindgren was too slow to react. Kyrou turned him into a statue before rifling home his 13th past Quick. Kyrou seems to love playing the Rangers. It was his sixth career goal versus them in eight games. He scored in both Blues’ wins in the season series.

Another miscue nearly resulted in Thomas making it 3-0. Chytil lost the puck in his zone. That allowed Thomas to take it away and fire a shot off the goalpost. He would finally beat Quick later to put the Rangers behind by three.

Following a Zac Jones pinch deep in the Blues’ zone, that allowed Thomas to start a two-on-one in the opposite direction. With only Schneider back and Lafreniere still trailing the play, Thomas picked the short side on Quick to make it 3-0 with 9:32 remaining. Schneider did the right thing giving Thomas the shot. But he made a good one to put the Rangers in a three-goal jam.

In the third period, they tried to climb back in it. On a hustle play, Berard picked up a loose puck and surprised Blues goalie Joel Hofer by going to the short side for his second goal of the season. It was unassisted. That pulled the Rangers within 3-1 with 9:42 left.

On the next shift, some hard work from the top line led directly to Cuylle getting his 11th. On a strong cycle play that was started on a Mackey pass down low to Chytil, he worked the puck over to Lafreniere, who then centered in front for a Cuylle finish. That cut the deficit to one with still 8:23 remaining.

In a period that saw Zibanejad benched by Laviolette, he couldn’t avoid sending him back out for the final two minutes. With Quick on the bench for an extra attacker, both Zibanejad and Kreider took their usual places with Fox, Lafreniere, Trocheck, and Chytil. It made no sense. What about rewarding your best players? That would be Cuylle and Berard. They got them back in it. Why weren’t they out for the six-on-five?

Laviolette is still blindly loyal to Zibanejad and Kreider. Prior to the final shift which proved to be an exercise in futility, he only received 10:34 of ice time. In fact, he was skipped for a good portion of the third until Laviolette sent him back out.

If he wanted to send a message, Zibanejad should have remained on the bench. He has been atrocious. The only thing left is for Laviolette to make him a healthy scratch on Tuesday against the Nashville Predators. They are worse than the Rangers. They’re the biggest disappointment to date. Why not have Zibanejad sit in the press box? They don’t need him to fire blanks and skate around aimlessly. He needs a mental break.

Laviolette might be running out of answers. The team is in a funk. It’s now up to 10 losses over the last 13 games. There seems to be no end in sight. At what point does the coach decide to make an example of one of his established stars. Are we there yet? Is it coming? The better question is, will he do it? We’ll find out soon.