NEW YORK - Here's a harsh reality for the Rangers.

They've been a middling team for over a month now, as evidenced by eight wins in their last 16 games (8-7-1) dating back to Dec. 5.

To be fair, a more accurate description would be inconsistent. The Blueshirts have had a handful of strong performances in that span, but they've matched it with a nearly equal number of disappointments.

Monday's 6-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks was the latest example, drawing a rare smattering of boos from a Madison Square Garden crowd that's had plenty to cheer about through the first half of the season.

"I would certainly like to see more consistency with the game that leads us to success," head coach Peter Laviolette said. "For me, these things, they were mental tonight. We’ve got to dial in and fix that."

The Rangers (26-11-2) spoiled their fans for nearly two months by jumping out to an 18-4-1 start. They were the hottest team in the NHL, marking their territory as a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. But cracks in their armor that were easy to ignore while they were winning have come to the forefront while losing four of their last six games.

It starts with increasingly shaky defense, particularly when it comes to defending skilled, speedy teams like the Canucks in transition.

"When we found success early in the season, it was playing solid defensively and limiting the odd-man rushes and just general opportunities and chances against," captain Jacob Trouba said. "You look at our group, we’ve got pretty good special teams unit on both sides. I think (the key is) not putting ourselves down in a hole at five-on-five and giving up those opportunities and depending on our goalies to make too many saves that they shouldn't have to make."

"That's not where we were early in the year," he added. "That's kind of what’s drifted into our game a little bit with the lack of details. It's up to us to dig ourselves out, recognize it and get back to what made us successful early in the year."

Trends reversed

The thing about is, the Rangers are actually producing more goals than they were when the wins were coming at a rapid pace.

They were scoring just 2.06 five-on-five goals per 60 minutes prior to Thanksgiving, which was tied for 26th in the NHL, according to Natural Stat Trick. In 22 games since, they've upped that rate to 2.8 goals, which is tied for eighth during that lengthy period. They've been especially hot with 19 goals scored at 5v5 in seven games since Christmas.

At the same time, their defense has slipped significantly. After allowing 2.06 goals per 60 at 5v5 prior to Thanksgiving, they're surrendering an average of 3.08 in 22 games since, which sits 28th in the league in that span. Most alarmingly, they rate as the NHL's worst team at defending off the rush, according to Clear Sight Analytics.

More simply put, the scales have tipped too far.

"We’re not going to be able to play amazing hockey every game, but we’re just putting ourselves in a bad spot," Mika Zibanejad said. "Then we feel like we’re forced to make plays on every rush chance that we have and try to create something out of nothing. We just have to get back to the basics."

Will Cuylle: Rookie feels like he belongs in new role

Poor decision making

Prior to Monday's game, Laviolette addressed the "decision-making" issues that have led to an increase in turnovers and trouble with their zone entries and exits.

"It's like any sport," he said. "If you a throw a football down the middle and you don't know where it's going, there's no guarantee there. If you just whip a basketball to the center of the court, there’s a good chance it goes back the other way really quick. I think we've just got to continue to try and be mindful of our decisions on breakouts, through the neutral zone (and) certainly at the offensive-zone blue line – those areas where things can turn around really quick."

Despite their coach’s warning, it turned around quickly for the Rangers again later that night.

The start was promising enough, with the power play buzzing on an early opportunity that ended with Zibanejad setting up Vincent Trocheck for an easy finish. But that 1-0 lead would vanish less than a minute later.

A failed New York clear attempt turned into a J.T. Miller one-timer that tied the score at 1-1, followed by Nils Hoglander putting the Canucks on top for good at the 6:45 mark. That goal stemmed from a sloppy Trocheck pass in the neutral zone and a poor job of tracking back on defense by all five Rangers' skaters.

"Most of their goals were things that we did – getting through the neutral zone, turning pucks over," Trocheck said. "They’re high octane. They have a lot of skill over there, so you give them a chance – give them odd-man rushes – they’re going to put the puck in the net."

The Blueshirts generated a handful of quality scoring chances in their search for the equalizer − they ultimately outshot the Canucks, 42-26 − but their push for offense led to nine giveaways in the first period alone.

Poor puck management has been a common theme for years in New York. The Rangers cleaned it up in the first couple months of Laviolette's tenure, but those habits have crept back in.

"Taking care of the puck (and) making sure that we don't put ourselves in a bad spot defensively," Zibanejad said when asked about the primary problem. "That's where it stems from."

'Loud' chances

It wasn't just the turnovers on Monday.

A couple of ill-timed personnel changes bit the Rangers, as well, including one from the D pair of Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren with 16 seconds remaining in the first period. That left Trouba and K'Andre Miller scrambling when another giveaway led to a Canucks' rush opportunity, with Elias Pettersson putting a pass behind them to setup Brock Boeser for the finish.

"The chances that we let up tonight were way too loud," Laviolette said. "There was about a dozen of them."

The Rangers had a glimmer of hope when Artemi Panarin's team-leading 26th goal of the season cut the deficit to 3-2 early in the second, but Vancouver finished the period with another flurry.

The next goal would highlight a rough night for the Miller-Trouba pairing, who were involved on three of the Canucks' tallies. Trouba unwisely took himself out of the play in search of a hit at the blue line, leaving Miller making a snow angel on the ice while trying to defend a two-on-one. Pettersson's initial shot was stopped by Igor Sheserkin, but he reached around the Blueshirts' goalie to bury his own rebound.

Hoglander upped the Canucks' lead to 5-2 just over a minute later on a play that epitomized the Rangers' shortcomings. Nick Bonino had a dangerous cross-ice pass intercepted in the neutral zone, while the other two forwards, rookies Will Cuylle and Brennan Othmann, skated to the bench for another costly line change. That left Fox and Erik Gustafsson all alone in the D-zone, with their stick-reaching defense ineffective as Hoglander came flying toward the net.

That would be the final of five goals Shesterkin allowed on 25 shots faced. And while it's hard to blame the all-star goalie for the high-danger situations the Rangers put him in, we also know he expects to make some of those saves when he's on top of his game. That hasn't been the case often enough this season, as evidenced by an uncharacteristic .904 save percentage.

Add it to the list of items to fix.

"We’ve just got to limit the chances," said Trocheck, who scored his second goal later in the game to cut the deficit to 5-3. "We've got to limit the turnovers. I trust that we'll get chances if we play the right way defensively. We’re leaving our goalies out to dry. I know we have really good goaltenders, but you give these teams that many odd-man rushes, they’re going to score."

Lines juggled as Kaapo Kakko inches closer

The shaky first period led Laviolette to do something we haven't seen much of this season: Juggle the lines.

It started with a revolving door at the right-wing spot on the top line, where Blake Wheeler has had his share of struggles and began the game with three first-period giveaways.

Laviolette double-shifted Panarin as much as he could, but ended up using four different players in that spot along with Othmann, Wheeler and Alexis Lafrenière. As a result, many of the lines were constantly changing, with Othmann getting the short end of the stick for the second consecutive game. The rookie finished with a game-low 6:34 time on ice.

"The Trocheck line (with Panarin and Lafrenière) was really humming, I thought, and I was just trying to put somebody up there to just give Mika and (Chris Kreider) a different look," Laviolette said. "Blake went down and took some shifts with (Cuylle) and just tried to move it around. We're down 3-1. It was more so just double shifting a couple players. … When you do that, it’s at the expense of different players."

It made the need for reinforcements that much more glaring − and the good news is that at least one injured forward appears close to returning.

Kaapo Kakko, who suffered a left-leg injury on Nov. 27 and has missed 19 games, is expected to practice as a full participant any day now and could rejoin the lineup within the next week.

"There were no real restrictions on him (Monday)," Laviolette said. "He could be close."

The plan may have been to ease Kakko back in, but he's the best in-house solution to solve the 1RW dilemma.

Of course, the current problems run deeper than one player or one lineup tweak. The Rangers have now allowed five goals or more nine times this season, a clear indicator that their collective defensive play is off the mark.

"There's no excuse for that," Laviolette said. "We're not going to win giving up five goals. You can’t win, not on a regular basis. … That has to get taken care of."

Vincent Z. Mercogliano is the New York Rangers beat reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Read more of his work at lohud.com/sports/rangers/ and follow him on Twitter @vzmercogliano.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Postgame takeaways: Rangers' defensive issues come to the forefront