The Rangers, fighting to stay alive in the race for the Eastern Conference's final Wild Card spot, dropped their third straight game Sunday night, 7-3 to the Columbus Blue Jackets, a direct rival for the playoffs.

To make matters worse for the Blueshirts, they now head out for a three-game road trip, starting off against the Western Conference-best Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday, which begins a stretch that will see them play 10 games in 18 days.

"We don't have time to pout," said forward J.T. Miller, who finished minus-3 in 17:36 of ice time in Sunday's loss.

Defenseman K'Andre Miller added that with the upcoming condensed schedule the players "need to throw this one away and move on as quick as possible."

"This one sucks, it's gonna sting for a little bit," the blueliner continued. "Try to turn the page as quick as we can."

The defeat, the third on the spin came after New York scored back-to-back 4-0 home wins.

"I think they're three completely different games, gotta just get back to defending like we had been," said forward Mika Zibanejad, who added two assists (both shorthanded) the second of which tied the game at 3-3 midway through the second period. "Honestly, just play better."

Head coach Peter Laviolette: "We didn't capitalize when we needed to capitalize. When we made it 3-3, we needed to grab the juice, get the fourth goal, and then push the game in our direction. It didn't happen."

After allowing 14 goals the last three games, K'Andre Miller, a minus-1 in 21:18 of ice time, was asked if he noticed anything different on the defensive end: "Nothing specific. I think we're just not playing as hard defensively."

After beginning the season 12-4-1, Laviolette's side has sputtered going 19-23-5 since, beginning with a disastrous run of just four wins in 19 games from late November through December. Chris Drury, who has been very active in trades hoping to find the right combination to right the ship coming off a Presidents' Trophy-winning regular season, took a longer view before Friday's trade deadline as the GM's recent moves were more about adding flexibility and youth, not preparing for a deep playoff run.

J.T. Miller, one of those midseason acquisitions, said the recent play and results are "not good enough."

"These are bigger games this time of year, but we're gonna get a chance to right the ship in a couple days," J.T. Miller added, referencing the third game of the trip at Columbus. "[Tonight] stings, but we'll get a chance to play these guys again soon.

"Really important road trip, so we don't have much time to sit around and keep our hands down. We gotta be ready."

After Sunday's loss, New York is one point behind the Ottawa Senators, who have two games in hand, and two points behind Columbus, who have one game in hand.

"You gotta move on," Laviolette said of the loss. "We'll watch it and get better. And we gotta get back to work. We're still sitting here... one point outside of the Wild Card spot. We gotta win hockey games. We're heading out on a road trip, we gotta win games.

"So it didn't go our way, it is frustrating. We're disappointed we didn't play better, but now we gotta go back to work. We gotta get on a plane [Monday] and go get some points on the road."

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