NEW YORK _ This Trade Deadline Eve was long and eventful before the puck even dropped Sunday night at the Garden, with Rick Nash shipped to Boston in the morning and Jean Ratelle's No. 19 raised to the rafters to begin the evening.
There was still a game to play, and though the Blueshirts came out buzzing after they all warmed up in Ratelle jerseys, they lost in overtime to Detroit, 3-2. The misery continues to the tune of seven consecutive losses, 11 losses in their last 13 and 17 losses in their last 22 matches. All of those losses were in regulation.
Trevor Daley scored with 5.6 seconds remaining in overtime.
Ryan Spooner, acquired from the Bruins in the Nash deal, made his Rangers debut and assisted on both of their goals while playing left wing on a line with Kevin Hayes and Jesper Fast. Spooner, 26, had 25 points in 39 games with Boston this season.
Henrik Lundqvist played for the first time in a week, sitting out both games of a back-to-back Thursday and Friday to spend extra time working on his game, and made 30 saves in regulation.
"You can't lie. In this situation, it's hard mentally to be on top of everything when you've been losing this much and not playing at the level that we can," Lundqvist said Sunday morning. "But at the same time, you look at what's been going on with the injuries, not to look for excuses, but you've got to be realistic too where we are and what type of players we're missing right now. You've just got to (make) the most of this here."
Fast tied the game at 2 with 8:44 left in the third after J.T. Miller's power-play goal at 7:51 of the second cut the Rangers' deficit in half.
Andreas Athanasiou scored with 6.7 seconds left in the first and Darren Helm doubled Detroit's lead on a breakaway at 4:31 of the second.
