(My Sportsbook) - What does $80 million get you nowadays in the NHL? Well if you are the New York Rangers it gets you an early jump on your summer vacation and a nice comfortable spot in front of your television to view the upcoming postseason.

Hanging to slim playoff dreams, the Rangers welcomed the Pittsburgh Penguins to Madison Square Garden on Wednesday with the hope of climbing within four points of the Islanders for the eighth and final playoff spot in the East.

The result? The Rangers put forth a lifeless effort on their home-ice against a team that had not won in its previous 16 games, and were on the losing end of a 3-1 decision. They all but assured themselves of missing the postseason for a franchise-record sixth straight season.

"This is the National Hockey League. Nobody is going to come out and give you two points because they're out of the playoffs," said forward Anson Carter, whose old club in Edmonton has already wrapped up a trip to the playoffs.

The Rangers remained six points behind the Isles, but only have five games left on their schedule while their rivals still have six to play.

"Time isn't on our side," center Eric Lindros said. "Every game is important and we blew it tonight."

Brian Leetch scored for the Rangers and Dan Blackburn made 20 saves in the loss. The Rangers had their three-game winning streak snapped and fell to 6-2-1 in their last nine on home ice.

The Penguins took advantage of several costly Ranger penalties in the opening period. Martin Straka scored the first power-play goal of the period when he was wide-open in front of the New York net and deflected Dan Focht's shot between the legs of Blackburn.

"I'm embarrassed that we didn't come out better," said Ted Donato.

Pittsburgh scored on both of its power play chances in the first period, the second coming from Tomas Surovy with only 12 seconds left in the stanza. Surovy came streaking down the middle of the ice and beat the Rangers defense -- and Blackburn -- when he chipped the puck over the goaltender's blocker.

The Penguins added to their lead when Eric Meloche took advantage of a bad turnover by Ranger defenseman Darius Kasparaitis in front of New York net. Meloche notched his third goal of the season when his backhand shot squeezed through the legs of Blackburn to make it 3-0 1:53 into the third period.

Leetch closed the margin to 3-1 at the 8:14 mark of the final period when he took a pass from Donato, who was stationed behind the Pittsburgh net, and deposited the puck into the Pittsburgh net.

"I said, 'We're not out of this - we've got five games to go,'" GM/head coach Glen Sather said. "We're not going to quit and we're not out of it."

WHAT'S AHEAD

The Rangers head to Boston on Saturday before hosting the Atlanta Thrashers on Monday.