Rangers give up three goals in third period to Blues, drop third in a row

This time, the start was not problematic.

The rest of the game, however, was troublesome.

And now, with one-quarter of the 2024-25 season completed, the worrying questions being asked about the Rangers are existential in nature:

Who are they? And what are they?

“Our whole goal here is to make sure that we’re a team that is hard to play against and hard to get stuff by,” defenseman Braden Schneider said after the Rangers dropped their third straight game in a 5-2 loss to the Blues on Monday night at the Garden.

The Rangers fell to 12-7-1 overall and 5-4-1 at home, which prompted another question for Schneider: Are the Rangers still developing their identity or have they gotten away from it?

“I’m not sure,” Schneider said. “I think we’re working toward something that we know we can achieve and I think we’re going to keep grinding away at that until we get there.”

To be fair, there are 62 games remaining for the Rangers to find themselves. But the overarching issue is that the structure and style implemented last year appears to be missing.

“We’re giving up too much,” Peter Laviolette said. The Rangers were outshot 43-29 by a Blues (10-12-1) squad that was playing its first game under coach Jim Montgomery, who was hired Sunday — five days after being fired by the Bruins.

During his availability following the morning skate, Laviolette bemoaned the way the Rangers had started their last two games — the 3-2 loss to the Flames on Thursday night and Saturday night’s 6-2 blowout defeat in Edmonton.

But truth be told, the Rangers did have a relatively quick start, as they had a 10-5 advantage in shots 6:25 into the game. But the final 53:35 proved to be vexing as the Blues outshot the Rangers 38-19.

“We’re not going to win games giving up 40, 50 shots,” Laviolette said. “It’s got to be much tighter.”

Brayden Schenn’s semi-breakaway goal 1:12 into the third period helped St. Louis break a 2-2 tie.

The sequence leading to Schenn’s winner began with Justin Faulk stripping Mika Zibanejad of the puck behind the St. Louis net. With the teams skating four-on-four, Scott Perunovich jumped on the turnover and sprung Schenn, whose fourth of the season beat Igor Shesterkin (38 saves) to the stick side.

Zack Bolduc scored his second of the game 7:13 later to put the game out of reach. Pavel Buchnevich’s empty-netter with 2:45 left ended the scoring.

“Give up a goal to start the third period and I didn’t like the response after that,” Laviolette said. “We need more response because it’s not good enough.”

The Rangers took a 1-0 lead 8:47 into the game on the first of Will Cuylle’s two goals.

Twenty-nine seconds after the Rangers’ second power play of the first period came to an end, Cuylle was credited with his eighth goal of the season. The play began with Kaapo Kakko firing a shot from the half wall that deflected off Zac Jones’ stick before it ricocheted off Cuylle’s leg and in between Joel Hofer’s legs.

The lead lasted for all of 2:58. Jordan Kyrou tied it at 1-1 with his seventh of the season at 11:45 off a behind-the-net feed from Schenn, who had intercepted Zibanejad’s pass behind the goal line intended for Jacob Trouba.

Bolduc’s first of the season 4:30 into the second period put the Blues ahead, 2-1. The Rangers were unable to break out of their end of the ice due St. Louis’ heavy forecheck to start the period, and it was costly when Bolduc flipped a quick shot that eluded Shesterkin.

“We weren’t able to get out of our own zone as cleanly as we would have liked,” Schneider said.

The Rangers drew even nearly three minutes later when Cuylle slammed a one-timer past Hofer (27 saves). Rangers rookie Brett Berard recorded his first NHL point on the goal as he was credited with the secondary assist.

“I don’t know if [there was] anything good,” Artemi Panarin said, when asked if there were any positives the Rangers could glean out of the loss.