The Rangers produced two more high-energy games last week on the road, which should come as no surprise to anyone following that hockey team’s odd performance pattern this season. Now there may be trouble, however, because the Rangers’ first-round playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens is moving from an electric atmosphere inside Bell Centre to an arena where it is far too easy to hear the puck drop during a third-period face-off.

That would be Madison Square Garden, where the Rangers compiled the worst regular-season home record among the playoff teams, becoming one of only two N.H.L. clubs to gain fewer points at home than on the road. It is the site where the Rangers play host to the Canadiens on Sunday in Game 3 of their first-round series, which is tied at one game apiece, hoping to reverse a malaise infecting both the gladiators and their audience.

Ask Coach Alain Vigneault or his players about this problem, and they will hold to the politically correct line that the Garden crowd is just fine and can still inspire great moments. Vigneault says these regular-season tendencies don’t matter because “you’re playing against the same team every night and it’s a different mind-set.” The fans, however, are more likely to tell tales on themselves, acknowledging that the self-proclaimed World’s Most Famous Arena has become a place of diminishing returns and decibels.

While noise levels can reach impressive levels on occasion, they are rarely sustained. Some complain that the configuration of the refurbished place — including bridges and moat — has dampened sound and wrecked a sense of community. Others say that higher ticket prices have changed the crowd’s demographics, replacing traditional “blue seaters” with a more silent army of blue suits.