Rangers need to bring their winning formula on the road to Madison Square Garden

LAS VEGAS — First, a disclaimer: Finding out late in the day that head coach Mike Sullivan would not be behind the bench for their game Sunday night at the Garden against the Detroit Red Wings was clearly a curveball for the Rangers’ players, something they had to adjust to.

And yes, it was the second night of a back-to-back set, and it followed a game that had gone to a shootout the night before, which could account for some heavy legs.

But neither of those things could explain why the Rangers were outshot, 42-19, in their own building in a 2-1 loss that wouldn’t have been that close if goaltender Jonathan Quick was anything short of magnificent. Nor could they explain why the Rangers, who impressively were 9-1-1 away from home this season before Tuesday night’s game at T-Mobile Arena against the Vegas Golden Knights, are 1-7-1 at Madison Square Garden.

“Today wasn’t good enough,’’ captain J.T. Miller said bluntly after Sunday’s game, dismissing the question of whether going back-to-back played a part in their substandard play. “They outplayed us. If it wasn’t for Quickie, that game could have been wide open.’’

This wild disparity between the Rangers’ results on the road, versus at home, is just plain weird. Inexplicable, really. Sullivan, who flew on his own to Las Vegas to rejoin the team and arrived at T-Mobile Arena just in time for the morning skate, said he’s never been part of a team that was this good on the road, while being this bad at home.

“No, I never have,’’ he said.

So how do you explain it, he was asked.

“I don't know that I have an answer for you.’’

He then went on to say the same thing he’s been saying, over and over, all season: essentially, that the Rangers haven’t actually been so bad at home, as far as the way they played. Despite the record, Sullivan said there have been many games at home when the team played well enough to win, but just somehow didn’t win.

“I think, from afar, you can look at the win-loss record and it doesn't look great,’’ he said. “I think potentially it could be better than it is.

“Having said that, it's on us to figure it out and find ways to work through it,’’ he said. “And we will.’’

With Tuesday being the start of a three-game road trip that continues in Colorado on Thursday and at Utah on Saturday, this wouldn’t be the ideal time for the Rangers to suddenly reverse their bizarre trend, and start losing on the road and winning at home. They’d won six straight away games before Tuesday, and they were going to need points on the current road trip to keep themselves in the playoff race.

But even if they do, they are still going to have to improve their home record. Expecting they’ll continue winning road games at the rate they have so far — their points percentage entering Tuesday was .864 — would be silly. That kind of pace is unsustainable. So they better fix whatever isn’t working for them at home and turn it around soon, or they won’t be going anywhere this season.

Tuesday was their 21st game of the season, a little more than 25% of their 82-game schedule. So they can’t keep telling themselves that it’s still early, and things are bound to correct themselves. They have to find a way to correct things now.

After Sunday’s loss, defenseman Adam Fox insisted the team was still feeling good about itself overall.

“We’re almost a fourth of the way through, so obviously a little more than a small sample size,’’ Fox said Sunday. “But I think we feel good. We’ve tried to stay the course, even when things weren't going our way at the start of the year. I thought we're playing good hockey, and not getting rewarded for it, but recently, we've kind of gotten a little bit more reward for it. So I'm just trying to stay that course.’’

Blue shorts

Defenseman Will Borgen, who missed the previous two games with an upper-body injury, was a full participant in the morning skate, and Sullivan said whether he returned to the lineup would be a game-time decision . . . Igor Shesterkin was back in net after Quick faced Detroit on Sunday . . .  Sullivan on D Scott Morrow, who made his Rangers debut Sunday: “We think he has decent instincts offensively, he can help us with a transition game. . . . Physically, I think he's capable of playing at this level.’’

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.