The Rangers shut out again at home with a loss to the Capitals

Rangers have not scored a single goal at home this season.

There have only been two games at Madison Square Garden, but the Blueshirts were eliminated on both occasions after failing to find the back of the net in a 1-0 loss to the Capitals on Sunday night.

It wasn’t about effort, energy or consistency, but the inability to finish against a strong goalkeeper.

“I think the team played very well, and that’s what I told the players after the game,” said Mike Sullivan, the national team’s coach. “For our coaching staff, we’re more concerned with how we play, how we win and how we lose. Sometimes, you can’t control whether the ball goes in or not. I thought from the standpoint of effort, determination, our attitude – for me, that type of game is the type of game we’re trying to build. We had our look. We had some great looks.”

“They made some crucial saves at crucial times, give them credit…. If we continue to play with this kind of effort and this kind of focus and attention to detail, I think we will win more games than we lose. That’s for sure.”

Charlie Lindgren was impenetrable against Washington through 60 minutes, stopping 13 shots in the middle frame alone en route to 35 saves on the night.

Rangers attacked in every way, especially in the second half, but Lindgren could not achieve anything.

At one point in the middle frame, Lindgren robbed Mika Zibanejad on a two-man rush with Artemi Panarin, which put the Swede in front for just a one-timer, but the Capitals’ netminder made a brilliant save.

Whether it was playing the Rangers to full power in the Capitals zone or aggressively shifting five-on-five, Lindgren was sharp for 60 minutes.

This game probably saw a much stronger effort from the Rangers than theirs Season opener against the PenguinsBut they still went 120 minutes without scoring a goal in front of their fans.

“We talked after the first game of the year about how we were losing, and that was unacceptable,” Rangers captain JT Miller said. “But I think we can take credit for the way we worked today. We created a lot of attacks, and we felt like we outplayed them for most of the game. We can sleep better tonight knowing we played a much better game.”

Lindgren, of course, is the brother of former guard Rian Lindgren, who the Blueshirts traded to Colorado last season before he signed with the Kraken as a free agent this summer. After the last time the Rangers saw Lindgren in goal, the Washington goalie seemed to take his brother’s departure personally in his postgame interview.

“I know for a fact that they will definitely miss him,” he said at the time.

The Capitals scored their first and only goal at 13:47 of the second period, when Anthony Beauvillier blocked an Alex Ovechkin shot past Rangers goaltender Jonathan Quick.

Rangers didn’t give up much during the 60 minutes, but the one goal was enough.

By limiting the Capitals to fewer than 10 shots in each period, the Rangers only surrendered six high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.

“I think that was the best game we’ve played all year, the most complete game we’ve played all year,” Sullivan said. “Against a really good team. I thought the guys played hard. Both teams were coming off back-to-backs. I thought both teams had pretty good energy under the circumstances.”