New York Rangers playing catch-up in playoff race as second half of season begins

The New York Rangers are on the outside looking in on the race for the Stanley Cup Playoffs as they start the second half of their season with a three-game trip out West, beginning Saturday night against the league-leading Vegas Golden Knights.
That’s a big change from the same time a year ago, when the Rangers’ biggest concern was holding off the Carolina Hurricanes for first place in the Metropolitan Division – which they ultimately did while going on to win the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s regular-season champion and getting within two victories of a trip to the Stanley Cup Final.
This season began looking like it would be a repeat of 2023-24 – the Rangers started 12-4-1 and were in a four-way race for the top spot in the division. Then the bottom fell out.
Beginning with a 3-2 road loss to the Calgary Flames on Nov. 21, the Rangers were the worst team in the NHL through the rest of 2024. They went 4-15-0 in their next 19, dropping them not only out of the race for the division title but well outside of the top eight teams in the Eastern Conference. Most discouraging was that they barely put up a fight in many of those games – most notably a 5-0 loss to the New Jersey Devils in Newark that saw them manage just 12 shots on goal. Captain Jacob Trouba was traded in early December, and forward Kaapo Kakko, the No. 2 pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, was shipped to the Seattle Kraken before Christmas.
But things have perked up since the start of the new year. The Rangers are 3-1-1 in their first five games of the new year after a 3-2 overtime win against the Devils at Madison Square Garden on Thursday in what might have been their best effort of the season. The win lifted them to 19-20-1 at the midpoint of their season.
Making the playoffs in the Western Conference might be impossible – the Rangers would be seven points out of the second wild-card spot and at least 13 out of any of the other seven berths. But the East is another story: Though the Rangers are 13th in the conference, they are just four points behind the Columbus Blue Jackets, who hold the second wild card, and five in back of the Boston Bruins, who’ve dropped back to the first wild card. The Rangers also have one game in hand on the Jackets and three on the B’s.
Here’s a look at the Rangers’ standing in the playoff race as they prepare for what they hope is a much better second half.
Where they are
At 19-20-1, the Rangers have dropped off markedly from the same point last season, when they began the second half at 26-13-2, one point ahead of Carolina for the top spot in the tops in the Metropolitan Division. They are 9-9-2 at home and 10-11-0 away from Madison Square Garden – and those 11 losses at home match their total for all of last season. They are in a three-way tie for 20th in goals scored (120, 16 fewer than last season) and tied for 17th in fewest goals (130, 10 more than last season).

The visit to Vegas begins one of the busies stretches of the season for the Rangers. From Jan. 11-19, they play five games in five cities. The good news, assuming the Rangers can rediscover their winning touch at home, is that from Jan. 18-Feb. 7, they play eight of 10 games at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers still have their California trip in front of them; they visit the Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks from March 25-29, beginning a stretch that will see them finish the season with seven of their final 11 games on the road.
Teams ahead of them – division races
It looks like the top three teams in the Atlantic and Metropolitan Divisions are already set. The Toronto Maple Leafs, defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning are 1-2-3 in the Atlantic – the third-place Bolts are just one point ahead of Boston but have five games in hand on the Bruins.
The top three spots in the Metro also look like they’ve been determined. The first-place Washington Capitals have stretched their lead over Carolina and New Jersey to five points, and the Caps have games in hand on each. The fourth-place Blue Jackets are 10 points back.
Both sets of top-three teams have a points percentage of .590 or better; no one else in the East is better than .524.
Wild-card race — teams ahead
Here’s where things get interesting in the “Mushy Middle” of the East.
The Bruins have 45 points (20-19-5), good for the first wild card – but everyone else in the East has games in hand on them. Boston showed a spark under Joe Sacco, who took over as coach after Jim Montgomery was fired in mid-November. But the B’s are 0-4-1 in their past five games and 1-4-1 since the Christmas break, dropping them back into the pack. Their minus-27 goal differential is the worst in the East.

The Blue Jackets (19-17-6) are one of the season’s best stories. Little was expected of Columbus after the tragic offseason death of star forward Johnny Gaudreau, but the Jackets hold a wild-card berth and are tied for third in the league with 147 goals. Their problem is defense; the Blue Jackets have allowed 150 goals, more than all but three teams.
Teams (including the Rangers) chasing a wild card
After the two current wild cards, there’s a mad scramble.
No team has given up more than the Pittsburgh Penguins (18-17-8), who’ve surrendered 159. The Penguins also lead the league with seven losses in games they’ve led by multiple goals. The line of Sidney Crosby (47 points), Rickard Rakell (21 goals) and Bryan Rust (16 goals, 32 points) is carrying the Pens, but someone has to keep the puck out of the net.
The Montreal Canadiens (20-18-3) are above NHL .500 at the midway point for the first time in what seems like eons. They’ve gotten a spark from rookie goalie Jakub Dobes, who won his first two NHL starts, allowing one goal in the process. The Canadiens haven’t made the playoffs since 2021, when they reached the Final in the Covid-shortened season.

A coaching charge appears to have lit a fire under the Detroit Red Wings (19-18-4), who’ve won five in a row under Todd McLellan as they seek their first playoff berth since 2016. The Wings’ host three of the NHL’s bottom-feeders (Chicago, Seattle, San Jose) before playing eight of 11 on the road, including a trip to Western Canada and Seattle.
The Ottawa Senators (19-18-3) went 4-4-1 on a nine-game trip, and poor play dropped them out of a wild-card spot. Linus Ullmark’s goaltending had carried them into the top eight in the East; his back injury has coincided with a 1-3-1 post-Christmas slide. If he’s not back soon, it’s hard to see the Senators competing for a playoff spot.
The New York Islanders (16-18-7) survived a rash of major injuries (Mathew Barzal, Anthony Duclair, Adam Pelech) but haven’t been a whole lot better since getting healthy. They struggle to score, give up far too many Grade-A scoring chances and are last on the power play and the penalty kill. However, they did win 4-0 in Vegas on Thursday.

Life has gotten tough for the Philadelphia Flyers (17-20-5), who have struggled during the two injury-related absences of starting goalie Samuel Ersson. They are 0-3-1 during his latest injury and 1-4-1 in their past six games. The Flyers have a stretch later this month when they’ll play eight of nine games — including five in a row — against the three NYC-area teams.
Last, but not least, the Buffalo Sabres (16-21-5) are beginning to dig out after a 13-game losing streak dropped them to the bottom of the East. They are 4-2-1 since then and just seven points out of a playoff spot, but there may be too many teams ahead of them to prevent an NHL-record 14th straight non-playoff season.
Conclusion
There’s definitely a path to the playoffs for the Rangers, though it would almost certainly be as a wild card. But it won’t be easy. They’ve exhausted almost all their wiggle room, and they can’t take any nights off, especially against teams they should beat.
The power play has to perk up, they have to rediscover the home-ice domination they had last season — and they must hope that the other teams they’re jockeying with don’t go on hot streaks.
It will be difficult … but not impossible.
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