Rick Nash did not play for the second straight game as a precaution leading up to Monday's trade deadline, while the departure of Michael Grabner to New Jersey Thursday night left the Blueshirts without their top goal scorer.
Those losses, coupled with Ryan McDonagh, Kevin Shattenkirk and others have led the Rangers to rely on young players. But while those are factors for the team's struggles over the past six weeks, those are not the only factors.
"It's a lot of stuff," Zuccarello said. "People aren't playing up to their standards. We have a lot of new players. It's going to take some time for them to get into the NHL speed and pace and play. It's normal. We compete, but we're not that good right now. It's easy."
Granlund's first of the night at 16:06 was followed by Staal's first just 2:37 later to put the Wild ahead, 2-0.
Jesper Fast got the Rangers back within a goal 2:41 into the middle frame when he buried a pass from J.T. Miller on an odd-man rush.
Staal put Minnesota back up by two 52 seconds into the third, and Granlund potted his second of the evening at 9:22 of the final period.
"They get that tip there right off of the hop in the third," coach Alain Vigneault said of Staal's second. "We just didn't have enough to come back."
Alexandar Georgiev got the surprise start after he made his NHL debut Thursday night in Montreal and finished with 33 saves in the defeat.
"It's an amazing feeling playing in this arena," Georgiev said. "I loved the crowd, how they were cheering for us. It's [much nicer]to play when pretty much everyone is cheering for you. Awesome atmosphere and fun to play at."
The loss was the team's 10th in its last 12 games. Vigneault, though, said the goal for him and his players is to play hard and play to win.
"We're in a result oriented business. Everybody here wants to win," he said. "We came out tonight and guys were ready, in my mind anyway. We worked hard and we had some good time, but we just weren't able to make the plays that we needed to make to get something out of it. Our preparation was there. We just have to stick with it."
