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Rangers blown out by Sabres 8-2 in 1st game after 4 Nations Face-Off break

The New York Rangers returned from the two-week break for the 4 Nations Face-Off and were doomed by a litany of mistakes in a humiliating 8-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday at KeyBank Center.

The Rangers fell behind 1:46 into the contest and gave up four more goals in the final 8:02 of the opening 20 minutes to fall behind the last place Sabres 5-0.

“It wasn’t good,” coach Peter Laviolette said postgame. “There was nothing that was good about the game. Terrible start, terrible first period. It didn’t get much better from there. It was not the game we were looking for coming out of the break. That’s it in a nutshell.”

Jack Quinn scored the opening goal, Rasmus Dahlin scored twice and added an assist for the Sabres, who also rolled to a 6-1 rout against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 7. Dahlin had a three-point opening period and was unstoppable against the Rangers, who spent large stretches in their defensive zone and scrambling around.

“I don’t see it as a lack of urgency,” said Vincent Trocheck, one of six Rangers who appeared in the 4 Nations Face-Off. “I think we were not in the right spots.”

Tage Thompson scored Buffalo’s third goal and tallied again early in the third. Ryan McLeod scored less than two minutes after Thompson’s first goal to turn the game into a rout, added another goal in the third and Dahlin capped the five-goal barrage by scoring on a power play

Henri Okiharju scored in the final minute, and the Rangers allowed eight goals for the first time since a 9-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Nov. 14, 2019.

“I think the effort and execution needs to be a whole lot better,” J.T. Miller said. “It’s tough seeing that many go up. We kind of left the goalies hanging out to dry tonight.”

Dahlin’s second goal ended Igor Shesterkin’s night. Shesterkin returned from his second upper-body injury this season and allowed five goals on 16 shots, not making it out of the first period.

It was the ninth time this season Shesterkin allowed at least five goals, his most in any season since debuting in Jan. 2020 and the 29-year-old is 1-5-0 in his past six games with an .817 save percentage. It also was the fourth time this season Shesterkin was pulled. Jonathan Quick allowed the final three goals.

The Rangers (27-25-5, 58 points) fell to 3-5-0 in their past eight games since a 10-game point streak (7-0-3) moved them back into the Eastern Conference race, and play six more games before the March 7 trade deadline. New York is four points out of the second wild-card spot with 26 games remaining.

The Rangers were somewhat improved in the second period after allowing their first five-goal opening period since Dec. 26, 1991 in an 8-6 road win over the Washington Capitals. Chris Kreider scored a power-play goal and Mika Zibanejad also scored but Buffalo finished it off in the opening five minutes of the third.