Mollie Walker article

The Rangers organization spent so much time proclaiming its goal was to become a harder team to play against.

It’s ironic, isn’t it, how much that message has been trotted out in recent years. Because six years after ex-general manager Jeff Gorton first said it — following the team’s loss to the Hurricanes in the 2020 qualifying round — the Blueshirts have become one of the least imposing teams in the National Hockey League.

Manhattan has become the premier destination on the league’s tour for a cakewalk game.

It certainly was for the Senators on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, where the Rangers were once again picked apart in an 8-4 loss that counted as their season-high fifth in a row.

“I just think when you go through struggles the way we’re going through, our confidence isn’t at an all-time high,” head coach Mike Sullivan said. “And when things don’t go the right way, especially early on in the game, it can affect the mindset of the group. And that’s been our challenge is to try to find a way to keep some resilience, keep a competitive spirit, enthusiasm, any adjective you want to use to try to give ourselves the best chance to put our best game on the ice.

“We take a penalty early on in the game, give them a power play right away. They score on the power play. They get momentum right off the bat. It’s a tough way to start the game. We got to find a way to have more resilience, be able to recover and overcome that.”

The Rangers looked like traffic cones at times against an equally troubled Senators team that was playing on the second night of a back-to-back.

There was zero pushback until the game was already out of hand at the end of the second period.

This is what opposing teams have come to expect when they see the Rangers on the calendar.

The Hartford Wolf Pack may have put up a better fight than the Rangers in this one.

Considering that rookies Gabe Perreault (two goals) and Noah Laba (one power-play goal) accounted for three of the Rangers’ four goals, it is very well a possibility.

It took less than five minutes for the Senators, who have had their fair share of dysfunction both on the ice and off this season, to put the Rangers in an early 2-0 hole.

And like so many other teams, Ottawa was able to pile on at the end of the period as the Rangers’ minds headed to the locker room early.

By the first intermission, the Rangers were staring at a near-impossible 4-0 deficit.

It was somehow even more of a gutless effort than the one in Boston, where the Rangers gave up 10 goals for the first time in almost 17 years.

“Obviously, not good enough,” Mika Zibanejad said after the Rangers fell to 5-13-4 on home ice. “Our start is not great at all. We just dig ourselves a hole and then it’s tough enough to win as it is in this league. You spot the other team four goals, not making it much easier so.”

Goalie Jonathan Quick has been charged with backstopping this mess in the absence of No. 1 Igor Shesterkin, who is on injured reserve with a lower-body injury and was unavailable for a fourth straight game.

Pulled for the second time in three contests, the 39-year-old Quick was replaced by Spencer Martin after giving up six goals on 17 shots.

“We have to turn the desperation, we have to turn that into energy,” Zibanejad said. “We have to turn whatever we’re feeling into some sort of energy.”

The Rangers have allowed it to become open season on their future Hall of Fame netminder.

There’s simply nothing hard about playing against this Rangers team.