Rangers throttled at home again in fifth straight loss; Jonathan Quick pulled after giving up six goals

That horrendous blowout loss Saturday in Boston should have been rock bottom for a Rangers team that finds itself in the midst of a second straight disappointing season.

But it might not have been.

The losses keep coming for the Rangers, who have now dropped five in a row and fallen into last place in the Eastern Conference. They were thumped, 8-4, Wednesday night at the Garden by the previously struggling Ottawa Senators, who had lost four straight before beating Vancouver at home on Tuesday.

“When you go through struggles the way we’re going through, our confidence isn’t at an all-time high,’’ coach Mike Sullivan said. “And when things don’t go the right way, especially early in the game, it can affect the mindset of the group. And that’s been our challenge, is to try to find a way to keep some resilience, keep a competitive spirit, enthusiasm . . . to try to give ourselves the best chance to put our best game.’’

For the second straight game, chants of “Fire Drury!’’ rang out, referring to Rangers GM Chris Drury. At this point, Rangers fans might be excused if they start looking ahead to the NHL draft lottery and dreaming of getting a chance to select Penn State forward Gavin McKenna or Swedish forward Ivar Stenberg.

The loss dropped the Rangers to 20-22-6, including 5-13-4 at home. Goaltender Jonathan Quick, starting his fourth straight game since Igor Shesterkin suffered a lower-body injury and 800th of his career, lost his 11th straight game, and was pulled for the second time in three games. Spencer Martin came off the bench to relieve him after Thomas Chabot’s goal at 12:23 of the second period made it 6-0. Martin stopped 10 of 11 shots.

At least the Rangers showed a little pushback near the end. Rookie Gabe Perreault scored two pretty goals, one late in the second that made it 6-1, and one early in the third to pull them within 6-2. And fellow rookie Noah Laba scored on a power play, tipping in Alexis Lafreniere’s shot to make it 7-3 at 10:44 of the third.

Lafreniere scored at 15:58 to make it 7-4.

“I’d like to not be down 4-0 after the first, but after that, we responded well,’’ captain J.T. Miller said. “We played with some pride after that.’’

Ottawa (22-19-5) grabbed control in the first period, scoring two goals early, one late and four in all. It started when Vincent Trocheck was called for a holding penalty 1:33 into the game and Drake Batherson made the Rangers pay by scoring on the power play at 2:18.

It was 2-0 before the game was five minutes old, as defenseman Nick Jensen fired a slap shot from the right point that hit the skate of Braden Schneider and got behind Quick at 4:53.

Brady Tkachuk, long the apple of Drury’s eye and a reported trade target for the Rangers last season, made it 3-0 when he wired a shot from the wing off the far post and in at 15:01. Dylan Cozens scored the fourth goal with 5.7 seconds left.

The onslaught continued in the second period with goals by Jake Sanderson and Chabot before Perreault finally got the Rangers on the board with his second goal of the season with 1:05 left.

The 20-year-old made a nice play all the way around, driving up the middle, taking a pass from Mika Zibanejad, passing to Miller on the right wing and continuing his drive to the net. He got behind the defense, took Miller’s pass all alone at the crease and slipped a nifty backhander between the pads of goalie Leevi Merilainen to make it 6-1.

“Ultimately, it didn’t matter,’’ a glum Perreault said when asked about his performance. “We were down quite a bit, so it was good to get [two], but we lost.’’

Perreault’s second goal, at 5:26 of the third, was a pretty one, too. He burst up the left wing on a two-on-one break with Zibanejad, and when Zibanejad waited patiently and lifted a perfect saucer pass onto his stick the rookie cut across the goalmouth, pulled the puck to his backhand and tucked it in.

Zibanejad’s two assists extended his point streak to seven games. Artemi Panarin had an assist on Lafreniere’s goal, extending his point streak to eight games.

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.