Rangers ‘trending in the right direction’ after slow start out of 4 Nations break
The New York Rangers stumbled coming out of the 4 Nations Face-Off pause in the NHL schedule at a time when they really needed to string together some wins in a push for a playoff spot. They’re 3-2-0 since the break but are starting to build momentum, including a convincing 4-0 win over the Nashville Predators on Sunday.
After getting blown out by the Buffalo Sabres 8-2 in their first game post break, and somehow earning a 5-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins when they were heavily outplayed in the next game, the Rangers have settled in, and are beginning to turn their game around.
They’ve been consistently better the past three games, even though they lost one of them, 3-2 to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday. In their wins against the Predators and New York Islanders (last Tuesday), the Rangers outscored the opposition 9-1.
“Yeah, trending in the right direction,” J.T. Miller said postgame Sunday.
But it’s not all perfect, according to the Rangers forward.
“I thought the first [period] was really good, but I think once we got a big lead, I feel like we didn’t really gain lines very well. Turned over a lot of pucks and forced [goalie Jonathan Quick] to make some really nice saves. He was awesome, and we’ll take the points right now.”
But those were two big points Sunday. Playing a down-and-out team, the Rangers absolutely had to win. And they did. Same holds true when they host the Islanders at MSG on Monday. The Islanders are better than the Predators, but still a team the Rangers should handle.
The Rangers enter play with 64 points, just two out of the second wild card-spot held by the Detroit Red Wings. New York is tied for ninth in the Eastern Conference with the Ottawa Senators and Boston Bruins. Ottawa plays the first-place Washington Capitals on Monday.
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Rangers need to ‘put together some wins’ to overcome stagnant playoff bubble
The Rangers didn’t do themselves any favors by dropping two winnable games out of their past five since the 4 Nations break. That being said, they’re still in a position to climb back into the playoffs. Their play over the past three games, despite losing one of them, has looked much better than the first two that had many wondering if the Rangers had any chance of making the postseason.
“I don’t like the first one out of the break, for sure,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette explained. “That was tough. I think the other ones were hard-fought. I do think it’s gotten better in the last couple games. Certainly we generated more off the rush and in the zone. The first 40 minutes (Sunday) and last game, I do think we were pretty tight defensively.”
Now the focus shifts to putting together a string of wins. The Rangers have not won three games in a row since Nov. 14-19. Their longest winning streak is four games Oct. 14-22.
While they’ve really turned their season around after bottoming out with a 4-15-0 record that bridged November and December, the Rangers have not been able to win more than two in a row.
“There’s a lot of hockey left, we’ve got to worry about ourselves,” Laviolette said prior to the game Sunday. “I feel like if we can put together some wins, I still feel like we’re in control of what we do here. We string together the majority of the wins, we can put 75 percent, 80 percent wins together, and do it for a stretch of time, we’ll find our own way.”
Winning 80 percent of the remaining games would surely help the Rangers cause, but they’ll have to go on several winning streaks if they want to make that happen. Keep in mind, again, they haven’t done that often this season, not even during their 10-game point streak in January, when they were 7-0-3.
New York has just 22 games remaining this season. Winning 80 percent of those games would roughly be an 18-4-0 record. That seems ambitious. But this is the spot they’ve put themselves in.
But it does feel like the Rangers have turned a corner and will be in this race until the end. That’s a much better place to be than where they were two months ago.
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