The Rangers completed a weekend to forget, falling 5-2 to the Capitals on Sunday. A game that was 2-2 heading into the third turned on one of the themes of the weekend, turnovers, leading to a pair of Washington goals. That coupled with poor puck possession and a non-existent power play resulted in back-to-back losses for the Blueshirts.

The word of the day seems to be panic. While that is not a word I would use, the one I used in the blog title - concerned - seems to fit best. I have not forgotten the 35-8-3 stretch nor do I fail to remember that the Rangers lead their division and still have a shot at the conference and league. But those factors don't preclude me from having a level of concern over how they played the last two games and three of the past four.

On the one hand, you can say that the team has clinched a playoff spot and all but locked up the division. Therefore, they have been having difficulty matching the opponents battle level and intensity. As such, once the playoffs start, they can flip the switch and be ready to play. all those may be true. However, it's a bad model.

Granted, the playoffs are now a given. But each game is a whole other season into itself. You are playing desperate teams who may be your opponent in the playoffs. You would like to see the intensity get raised to match the opponent, rather than going through the motions. In addition, maybe the errors we saw are purely due to focus, though that seems a bit unlikely.

A strong start Sunday, as opposed to the debacle Saturday, lasted just 20 minutes. The second period began and it's like the first stanza was forgotten. Washington was stronger on-and-off the puck, either forcing or taking advantage of unforced errors. It literally was like a bakery yesterday at MSG. You get a turnover and you get a turnover and you get a turnover. Plus, the forwards failed to get back, and when they did, were useless in their own end. It's those turnovers and poor defensive coverage that can't just be explained away on focus. It may be part of it but not the whole story.

Another excuse was the six games in nine nights. Now maybe they are tired. It's also possible the lack of MSL and Kevin Klein have had a bigger impact than expected. But you would like to see some desperation and fight. When Alex Ovechkin makes a comment that maybe they didn't want to be hit, that's bulletin board material and an anathema to how the Rangers have historically played. They are not the biggest team this year, especially as compared to years past, but in essence getting called soft should serve as a wake-up call.

When you then factor in a power play that should be on a milk carton, you have a strong recipe for failure. The man-advantage, if you can call it that, went 0-for-5 in 7:21 of power play time. As Brett Cyrgalis points out today, that made the team 1-for-26 in the past 12 games and 2-for-33 over the past 15, dropping their season success rate to 17.0 percent and placing them 21st in the league. AV spoke of shifting around the combinations, but that's a script we have seen before. As mentioned in the comments, the power play has been to the perimeter too much and still fails to get shots on net. A bigger issue is that the speed the Rangers can use through the neutral zone on 5-on-5 gets negated on the man advantage since three players are usually back. That inability to gain the zone in general let alone with speed has to be figured out. Too often the puck goes in, only to come right out again. They need to find a way to gain the zone with control, or if not, dump it and then forecheck to regain possession, which has been a mirage recently.

The Rangers have seven games left. At Winnipeg tomorrow and then Minnesota on Thursday. Home against New Jersey on Saturday, then Columbus on Tuesday and in NJ on Wednesday. They close the season at home against Ottawa on 4/9 and in Washington on 4/11. So it's two road games against teams right now in the playoffs. Three division games against opponents who would love nothing better to knock them down a peg. Then one against a team that may be fighting to stay in the playoffs and a contests against a possible first round match up.

Panic, No. Concern, no question.

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