Rangers fall below NHL .500 with 5-0 loss to Devils

NEWARK — The NHL Christmas break has arrived for the Rangers, and not a moment too soon.

They now have three days to be with their families and enjoy the holiday while getting away from the depressing way their season has been going.

Coach Peter Laviolette continues to try all manner of things in an attempt to change his team’s fortunes, and nothing he does seems to work.

On Monday afternoon, Laviolette made the decision to scratch a healthy Chris Kreider, the team’s longest-tenured player, who ranks third on the franchise goal-scoring list. But without him, the Rangers were shut out for the second time in a week.

Their 5-0 blowout loss to the Devils at Prudential Center was their 13th defeat in their last 17 games, dropping them below NHL .500 (16-17-1) for the first time this season.

And the indignity wasn’t necessarily going to stop there, because if Columbus (against Montreal) and the Islanders (against Buffalo) had won their games Monday night, it would have left the Rangers in last place in the Metropolitan Division. Columbus won but the Islanders lost, 7-1, putting the Rangers in seventh and the Isles in eighth, both with 33 points.

“We just need — we need more,’’ Laviolette said when asked why he decided to scratch Kreider. “At the end of the day, we’re not playing a brand that we need to play in order to be successful. And he’s a guy that we count on to help deliver that.’’

Rangers-killer Jack Hughes had two goals and an assist and the Devils went 3-for-4 on the power play against a Rangers penalty kill that was No. 1 in the league entering the game. The Rangers’ power play went 0-for-4 and had only three shots on goal.

“We’ve just got to score on the power play,’’ Alexis Lafreniere said. “That’s pretty simple.’’

The Rangers managed only 12 shots on goal, making it a pretty easy afternoon for Devils goalie Jacob Markstrom. Markstrom has had some pretty light workdays recently, as the Devils have held seven straight opponents to fewer than 20 shots on goal.

“We just maybe got to work harder or something,’’ Lafreniere said. “We got, what, [12] shots tonight? We’re not gonna score that way.’’

Jonathan Quick started in goal for the Rangers and made 25 saves. He might wish he had done better on Hughes’ first goal, but otherwise, he really couldn’t be blamed for this one.

Hughes beat Quick with a shot from the wing at 4:29 of the first period that he got a piece of but couldn’t keep out.

The Rangers trailed by only 1-0 after the first period, but penalties cost them in the second. They took two bench minors for having too many men on the ice, which led to goals by Timo Meier and Hughes to put the Devils up 3-0.

“I don’t like the way the game ended,’’ Laviolette said. “The purpose in which we play the game has got to be better.

“The second period, I mean, they scored the two power-play goals, but short of that . . . maybe they had one or two chances. We didn’t generate, though. That’s the problem too. I mean, they’ve been good defensively all year, but I thought in the second period, from a five-on-five standpoint, we held them in check. But we didn’t generate enough ourselves.’’

Stefan Noesen scored on a backdoor tap-in of a pass from Nico Hischier with 12 minutes left in the third period and Dawson Mercer added another power-play goal with less than eight minutes remaining to turn it into a rout. At that point, Devils fans began chanting “I-gor! I-gor!’’ — referring to goalie Igor Shesterkin, who wasn’t even playing.

“You can talk about it all you want,’’ Vincent Trocheck said. “To a man, everybody’s got to look themselves in the mirror. Stop looking around waiting for somebody else to do it. It’s gotta be us individually. We’ve got to dig deeper.’’

Notes & quotes: Jonny Brodzinski took Kreider’s place in the lineup, playing on the third line with Will Cuylle and Filip Chytil . . . Laviolette made one other lineup change, inserting defenseman Zac Jones in place of Chad Ruhwedel . . . Laviolette, talking before the game about Matt Rempe’s eight-game suspension: “I think you constantly learn, especially him, in the way he plays the game. We’ll keep working with him as well. He’s an important part of our team and he brings a lot to the table. It’s tough. It’s a big number for a suspension and we’ll have to manage the roster.’’ . . . Defenseman K’Andre Miller missed his sixth game with an upper-body injury.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.