The Rangers locker room after Thursday’s loss to the Islanders at the Garden was an uncomfortable place to be.
There was a numbness in the room, the kind that comes from a teamwide realization that the quest is over, that whatever slim hopes the team had for a playoff berth had vanished when Josh Bailey redirected Cal Clutterbuck’s centering pass to give the Islanders a shocking 4-3 win. It was the Islanders only shot on goal in the third period. The Rangers had 17.
The Rangers had played with desperation from the opening faceoff to the final horn.