Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in EnglishEven after such an up-and-down season, the Rangers still had a good chance of making the postseason just a couple of weeks ago. But then, the two trends they could not let happen did. The Montreal Canadiens, holders of the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference, went on a run, winning six straight and collecting 13 out of a possible 20 points over their last 10 games. The Rangers went in the opposite direction. Over their last 10 games, including Wednesday’s 8-5 loss to the Flyers, they have collected just seven out of a possible 20 points over that span including losing three straight.Their performance has put them on the brink of elimination with four games to go in the regular season. “We haven’t really helped ourselves, let’s be honest. We haven’t really helped ourselves over the last couple weeks,” Mika Zibanejad said after Wednesday’s loss. “A couple weeks ago, I felt like it was in our hands still. Take care of the games that we had, but we haven’t been able to do that. That’s why we’re in this position. We’re not in this position solely because of tonight, and it stings. It’s frustrating.”“[The frustration has] been there,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said of the feeling in the locker room. “The frustration, disappointment level is still there.”Wednesday’s game was especially frustrating as they went into the third period tied at 2-2 against a Flyers team that has already been eliminated from playoff contention and fired their head coach.Theoretically, the Rangers had more to play for on Wednesday but they didn’t play like it in that final period. Defensive breakdowns allowed the Flyers to score six goals — two being empty netters — and put the Blueshirts one step closer to the offseason.”It’s just kind of the same story, right? Breakdowns, confusion, who’s got who and guys are left wide open. It could have been more if [Jonathan Quick] didn’t make a few really good saves,” defenseman Adam Fox said of the defense in the third. “Same thing it’s been.”“I feel like we’ve been struggling back and forth with [the defensive breakdowns] all year,” Zibanejad said. “I’m trying to come up with something else to say, I just feel like I repeat myself every time we have these scrums after a loss. Today, it’s just not good enough, obviously.” Laviolette said the breakdowns weren’t because of confusion but simply missed assignments. But ultimately put it on the overall play of his skaters. “I didn’t like the way we attacked the period,” he said. “You go into that period and it’s in the balance of who is going to decide it. They played a better period than we did. We made mistakes and they ended up in the back of the net.”After play Wednesday, the Rangers remain eight points behind the Canadiens with each team having just four games left to play. Montreal needs just one more point to end the Rangers’ season but they don’t play until Friday. New York, on the other hand, will be right back on the ice Thursday against the rival Islanders — who they are tied with in the standings — at UBS Arena. A loss of any kind the rest of the way will spell the end of any potential comeback. With Thursday’s game less than 24 hours away, the Rangers know they can only go out and try and win all of their games and let the chips fall where they may.”We have a game tomorrow,” Zibanejad said. “Get some rest, get ready and try to get a win.””It’s a [bad] feeling in here for sure,” Fox said. “We’re hanging on by a thread at this point. But show up tomorrow and try to win a game. That’s pretty much all we can do right now.”
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