OK, a two-game winning streak hardly constitutes a march toward Lord Stanley’s Cup, but the Rangers head into the two-week Olympic break on a high note. They currently sit in the 10th spot in the east, tied with Tampa Bay at 63 points, one point behind eight seed Montreal.
With 20 games left in the regular season once they resume play, in what has turned into an eight-team race for the final three playoff spots, the Blueshirts have left themselves little margin for error.
It will probably take a 90-92 point season to grab one of the final spots, so that’s about 27-30 points the Rangers will need in these final 20. They are looking at a stretch run of say 14-5-1 to get there.
Twelve of the final 20 are on the road and when you consider how awful they’ve been at home this year that can be looked at as a plus. All but one (St. Louis March 18) are against conference opponents—and all but five of the games are against teams with records above the .500 mark. Did we mention it’s not going to be easy?
If there’s one thing we have learned about 2009-10 Rangers it’s that they’ve become the proverbial box of chocolates—you just don’t know what you’re going to get game to game. Despite what has become a roll of the dice every night, we offer up five things we think the Rangers need to do to make the playoffs for a fifth straight season.
5 – How ironic (and equally horrifying) that the two players the Rangers can least afford to have anything happen to collide in practice on a breakaway drill. The laceration that Henrik Lundqvist’s skate caused on Marian Gaborik’s thigh last week should serve notice to the team’s coaching staff—keep these two players as far away from one another as you can during practices. With the way the Rangers’ offense is going Lundqvist undoubtedly feels the only NHL-caliber challenge he faces in practice is Gaborik. Chad Johnson and Aaron Voros can collide all they want. Lunqvist/Gaborik, not so much.
4 – Leave the first two lines alone. Tortorella has been like a mad scientist trying to find the right combinations to jump-start the team’s moribund offense. Leave the Gaborik, Prospal, Christensen line alone for the final 20 and ditto with Torts’ occasional trio of Dubinsky between Jokinen and Callahan. They’re going to need some balance and a solid second line simply has to emerge to take some of the heat off of Gaborik.
3 – Wade Redden wake-up call. Tortorella has to find a way get through the thick fog Redden has been stuck in the last two seasons and attempt to get something out of the former all star defenseman in these last 20 games. His contract makes him impossible to move and the idea of waiving the 12-year veteran seems improbable. If Redden were able to return to half of what he was in Ottawa it would be a big boost to this club’s chances.
2 – The acquisitions of Jody Shelley and Brandon Prust brings an important element to the team for these last 20-some snarl. Toss in Aaron Voros up front and it gives the Rangers a chance to match up physically with some of their bigger opponents (six of the final 20 are against Philly, Jersey and Buffalo). Let’s face it, they’ve been pushed around some this season and it’s been a problem. If these three play with some fire the rest of the way and it could left the entire team’s bravado. The Donald Brashear error has mercifully come to an end.
1 – Okay—reality check—all of the above will help, but ultimately their chances fall squarely on the shoulders of Lundqvist and Gaborik.
Of the aforementioned list of teams battling for these final few spots, The King is the single player that separates the Rangers from this pack. If Henrik is Henrik, as the coach is fond of saying, the Rangers can squeeze in—and even pose a problem for one of the top seeds.
And the other half of that equation is the fact you need to put the puck in the net at some point, and Gaborik probably needs to become the third 50-goal scorer in team history or Lundqvist’s nightly heroics will be for naught.
Our guess is it comes down to the final weekend and Rangers fans can only hope that last piece of chocolate is a sweet one.
Tomorrow—its five things the Islanders need to do to make the post season.