Zibanejad: 'Hardest thing ever' to not dwell on mistakes in loss

New York Rangers veteran Mika Zibanejad is doing his best to forget about a dreadful performance in Tuesday's loss to the Winnipeg Jets.

Zibanejad was a minus-4 in 20:20 of ice time and had three turnovers lead directly to goals against in the 6-3 defeat. One of those giveaways came in the opening minute.

"It's the hardest thing ever," Zibanejad said, per USA Today Sports' Vince Z. Mercogliano. "I can't explain it. I can always talk. I can always answer your guys' questions to the best of my abilities to explain it. I will never be able to fully explain what it is when you're in the situation."

He added: "You have the mantras. You have the sayings to yourself. 'Forget about the mistake, just next action, next game, next shift.' It's harder than it sounds. But if I'm going to be like, 'Oh, this is so tough,' then it's not going to help me."

The loss brought the Rangers to 9-4-1 on the season, while the Jets improved to an NHL-best 15-1-0. New York returns to action Thursday against the lowly San Jose Sharks, and Zibanejad is targeting a bounce-back performance.

"I can bury myself in negativity and make it even worse, or try to learn from it and take the positives that were in the game," he said. "My job is to go out there and play a good game."

Zibanejad has registered two goals and nine assists in 14 games this campaign. He's recorded at least 24 tallies in his first seven seasons as a Ranger and has been one of the most productive centers in the league in recent years. The 31-year-old ranks 12th among all pivots with 454 points in 453 games since 2018-19.