Rangers shut out at home for sixth time this season in loss to Canucks; J.T. Miller calls it 'really frustrating'

It keeps happening over and over and there are only so many different ways to say it: The Rangers are awful at home. That’s all there is to it. They play well enough to think they should win sometimes, but they don’t score enough at home, and they definitely don’t win enough.

The Vancouver Canucks should have been easy pickings for them Tuesday. The Canucks came into Madison Square Garden without their former captain, Quinn Hughes (traded to Minnesota on Friday), without their top forward, Elias Pettersson, who they placed on injured reserve Sunday with an upper-body injury, and with the fewest points in the NHL.

And the Rangers got Mika Zibanejad back in their lineup after he’d been suspended for Monday’s game for violating team rules.

But Vancouver got an early first-period goal by Evander Kane, an early second-period goal by Liam Ohgren and 23 saves from goaltender Thatcher Demko, who earned his first shutout of the season, as the Canucks beat the Rangers, 3-0, dealing the Blueshirts their second straight loss and third in four games.

“It’s really frustrating,’’ said Rangers captain J.T. Miller, who was traded to the Blueshirts from Vancouver at the end of January. “I just feel like it’s happened too many times, where we’ve outplayed the opponent and we’re not coming out with a win. Once or twice is fine, but it’s happened a lot, especially at home, unfortunately.

“Our standard can’t be just playing well and not scoring . . . There needs to be more,’’ he said. “More from me, more from the next guy, more from whoever. It just needs to be more. It can’t be, ‘Well, we outplayed them.’ It’s good, but there just has to be more.’’

It was the seventh time in 35 games this season the Rangers (16-15-4) have been shut out, and the sixth time in 17 games at home, where they fell to 4-10-3. They are winless in the second game of back-to-backs (0-5-1). This was the third time this season they have lost to a team that was in last overall in the league. They lost in overtime to San Jose on Oct. 23, and lost to Calgary on Oct. 26 when those teams were in last.

“I thought we were all over them, and I think we’re creating a lot of chances,’’ said Zibanejad, echoing a refrain from many previous home losses. “We had some good looks on the power play. We’ve just got to find a way to score. We have to find a way to add on to what we did today, and maybe be a little bit more desperate, maybe a little more resilient in front of their net, and force that puck to go in.’’

Zibanejad was back in the lineup after missing Monday’s 4-1 loss to Anaheim because he’d been late to a team meeting before Monday’s morning skate. Zibanejad said he was late because he got stuck in traffic behind an accident.

“It’s my 10th season now. I know what the challenges [of living in Manhattan and driving to Westchester for practice] are, and whatnot. But you know, unfortunate situation,’’ he said. “I’m just hoping everyone in that accident was fine . . . but rules are rules, and I was late. So there’s not much else to say, honestly.’’

Vancouver (13-17-3) won its second straight after the big trade, despite being outshot 23-17. Demko, a candidate to be Mike Sullivan’s No. 1 goaltender for the U.S. team at the Olympics in February, made a number of brilliant saves as the Rangers had more scoring chances (31-14) and more high-danger chances (13-9), according to Natural Stat Trick. Jonathan Quick made 14 saves for the Rangers.

The Rangers’ power-play continues to struggle without point man Adam Fox. Even with Zibanejad back in the lineup and running the point, the Rangers were 0-for-4 with the man advantage. They are 2-for-22 since Fox was injured against Tampa Bay Nov. 29.

The Canucks led 1-0 after the first period on a somewhat fluky goal by Kane at 1:46.

Kane entered the Rangers’ zone on the right wing and as defenseman Matthew Robertson came over to defend him, Robertson ran into linesman Devin Berg, allowing Kane to skate alone across the slot and flip a shot past a sprawling Quick.

Ohgren made it 2-0 at 3:24 of the second, firing a shot off the rush from the right wing that hit Quick’s right pad but somehow still slithered its way across the goal line.

Conor Garland’s shorthanded, empty-net goal from deep in his own end of the ice with 3:08 remaining made it 3-0.

Notes & quotes: With Zibanejad back in, and Jaroslav Chmelar also coming back in, Jonny Brodzinski and Brett Berard were scratched . . . D Scott Morrow played after sitting out the last two games and Urho Vaakanainen was out.

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.