Losing to the Islanders is not normally reason to panic, but when the Islanders have 10 wins in the month of December, there is reason for concern. The Rangers fell to the Islanders 4-2 on Tuesday, falling down early 2-0 and failing to complete a comeback. Every time the Rangers inched closer, they let the Islanders slip further away.
There are plenty of excuses for why the Rangers lost. One could claim it was Pavel Buchnevich and Mika Zibanejad missing from the lineup, followed by the injuries to Rick Nash and Matt Puempel. An argument could be made for the poor ice conditions causing the Rangers to flip and flop all over the ice.