Rangers' Gerard Gallant disappointed in the play of his top two lines

A day later, Gerard Gallant was still unhappy with his team’s performance — or lack thereof — in the Rangers’ 3-1 Game 4 loss to the Devils Monday at Madison Square Garden. But the Blueshirts’ coach had no other choice but to put it behind him and get to work on turning things around. His team will try to regain the series lead when the Rangers play Game 5 in Newark Thursday.

“After the game, there was definitely frustration,’’ Gallant said on a Zoom call Tuesday as the Rangers had the day off from practice. “I was disappointed the way we played, and the way we showed up, and the way we lost that hockey game. But . . . it's a playoff series. It's 2-2. You turn the page now. You start to prepare for the next game."

After winning the first two games of the series in New Jersey last week, the Rangers lost both games at the Garden , falling in overtime in Game 3 before no-showing in Game 4. They were beaten twice by 22-year-old Devils rookie goaltender Akira Schmid, who before Saturday had never appeared in a playoff game .

The 6-5 Schmid was solid in allowing two goals in two games (he has stopped 57 of 59 shots), but the Rangers don’t believe they tested him enough with traffic in front of his net and enough quality shots from dangerous areas of the ice. And their power play, which had scored four goals in 10 tries in the two games in Newark, went 0-for-8 in Manhattan.

Gallant, though, said the power play was not the problem.

“They were 0-for-2, we were 0-for-3 [in Game 4],’’ he said. “It goes in streaks, and hopefully [the power play will] get real hot and score some big goals for us. But no, we're not going to make many adjustments . . .  it wasn't the special teams [Monday] night that were at fault.’’

Gallant tweaked his top two forward lines Monday, swapping centers Mika Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck, putting Zibanejad between Artemi Panarin and Vladimir Tarasenko and Trocheck between Chris Kreider and Patrick Kane.

Trocheck scored the Rangers’ only goal. His rebound of a Kreider shot 1:42 into the third period tied it 1-1. But even with that goal, Gallant said he didn’t see anything he liked from the top two lines after he made the switch.

“Not really, no,’’ he said. “The only thing I liked [Monday] night, I thought the Kid Line [Alexis Lafrenière, Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko] played really hard. And our goaltending [Igor Shesterkin] was solid. We need a lot more from everybody else.’’

Zibanejad suggested the Rangers need to do things quicker.

“I think we can do a better job of playing, maybe a little bit faster,’’ he said. “And that goes for all five guys on the ice — to get open, to move the puck, and to help each other out. I think when we let [the Devils] get set, it's hard for us to get into their zone. It's easier for them to just regroup, get the puck and go the other way. So we obviously didn't get up to the level of play that we want to, and that's something that we have to get back to.’’

Gallant was asked if, despite all the things that Zibanejad does as far as being sound defensively, killing penalties and winning faceoffs, he needs to produce more offensively. In the first four games of the series, he and Panarin, the team’s top two scorers in the regular season, each have just two assists.

“For me, it's the top six forwards,’’ the coach said. “They’ve got to be a lot better . . . They know that. I know that. And hopefully they'll play a lot better next game.’’

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.