Rangers fall to Predators as refs nearly lose control

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Filip Chytil and Rocco Grimaldi fight for the puck.It could have been called a schedule loss, but the Rangers hardly looked dead in their first game back after a four-game western road trip. It could have been chalked up to great goaltending from the opposing team, but there weren’t too many memorable saves (even if there were a lot of them) from Nashville netminder Juuse Saros.

Instead, it was just a little too much perimeter work and bit of a tough-luck night, the Rangers dropping a 5-2 contest to the Predators on Monday night at the Garden.

The Rangers (16-13-4) had just returned from a week-long sojourn out west when they were pretty proud to have gone 2-1-1. The shootout…