Sabres 7

Rangers 4

BUFFALO – Last year, the Rangers didn’t lose three straight games in regulation until the middle of December. Last year, the Rangers never surrendered more than six goals in a game. Last year, the Rangers never allowed as many as four goals in a game four straight times.

That was last year. This is this year.

“What concerns me is that I’m not sure if we’re in a fragile state or if we’re just waiting for things to go wrong, but we’re not giving ourselves the chance to compete over 60 minutes,” Tom Renney said after the Blueshirts were blown out 7-4 by the Sabres here last night. “Right now, we seem not to be able to accept the responsibility of playing well. We don’t seem to be able to finish the deal.

“I’d like our players to be disappointed and ticked off enough to say, ‘Enough is enough.’ Maybe this is just the maturation process of this year’s New York Rangers. That’s how I choose to look at it.”

After winning their first two, the Rangers have lost three straight in regulation during which they’ve surrendered 17 goals. They have allowed seven, six, four and four, respectively, from last night back through last Saturday’s shootout victory in Philadelphia. After Henrik Lundqvist allowed three goals in each of the final two periods of Thursday’s 6-5 loss to the Penguins, Kevin Weekes allowed three in the first and four in the second last night in his first work of the season.

Indeed, with their goaltenders unable to handle shots cleanly, with their five-man units completely disorganized on the, uh, defensive side of the puck, the Rangers conspired to allow 13 goals in a span of 72:57 from early in the Thursday’s second period to late in last night’s second.

Where have you gone, Vitali Yeremeyev? Ranger Nation is turning its lonely eyes to Dave Karpa.

The Rangers actually led 2-0 last night on a pair of early first-period power play goals 1:18 apart – one a five-on-three- from Brendan Shanahan and Fedor Tyutin. But once the Sabres scored at 14:52, the Rangers imploded. Buffalo scored five times within 13:56 to put the game to bed.

Renney was composed when he spoke to the press some 25 minutes after it had ended. He was also composed when he addressed the team after the defeat.

“I wouldn’t say Tom was angry, but he was not happy,” said Jaromir Jagr, who was knocked to the ice a half-dozen times and curiously left again to fend for himself. “He is smart enough to realize that screaming is not going to help anybody.”

“In a sense it’s your job to keep things in perspective and tell yourself it’s a long season,” said Shanahan, who scored a pair. “But it’s also about taking care of today.”

Because yesterday is gone, and so is last season.