A victory over the worst team in the NHL Saturday Night did not regret all the disappointment that the New York Rangers have endured in recent months.
But it left them with a better chance to save something from their Underwhelming season.
Rangers will appear to remain in the race for the last playoffs in the eastern conference when they host the Minnesota Wild in the last collision of the regular season between the team on Wednesday.
Rangers has been off since Saturday night, when they finished a three-game West Coast trip by directing San Jose Sharks, 6-1. The Wild started a three-game road trip to big city funds Monday night, when they fell to New Jersey Devils 3-2 in a shootout.
Artemic Panarin and Adam Fox made twice a piece of Saturday night for Rangers (35-32-7, 77 points). New York escaped the worst case for its journey after back-to-back losses to Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks (0-1-1) and made sure it would still be within two points from the other Wild-Card place for now.
Rangers entered on Tuesday for the second Wild Card with the Montreal Canadiens, who had a game in their hand before hosting Florida Panthers. New York is also two points ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets, which was planned to entertain Nashville Predators on Tuesday evening.
Looking at the scoreboard and calculating the different roads to the playoffs when April starts to represent a dramatic case for Rangers. They expected to compete for the Stanley Cup after winning the presidents’ trophy last season and fell to the possible Stanley Cup champion Panthers in the Eastern Conference Finals.
“We are still fighting and we are still running for something,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “We have made it a little difficult for ourselves, but I think the guys are still inaugurated to collect points.”
New York went 4-15-0 from November 21 to December 30-a span where it fell in the last place in Metropolitan and traded Captain Jacob Trouba to the ducks. Rangers then started the NHL’s Frenesi for the trade deadline by acquiring JT Miller from Vancouver Canucks on January 31.
New York can get a new Boost on Wednesday evening, as prospectus Gabe Perreault is expected to make his NHL debut. Perrault signed a three-year start-level agreement with Rangers on Monday, one day after his amateur career ended with Boston College 3-1 loss to Denver in the NCAA tournament.
The road to the playoffs is likely to be easier for the wild (41-28-6, 88 points). They have the first Wild-Card place in the Western Conference and are six points ahead of ninth place Calgary, which enters the Flames game Tuesday evening against Utah Hockey Club.
But Wild’s grip on the first Wild Card over the growing St. Louis Blues has become more sluggish over the past week. While Minnesota has lost two straight and four out of five (1-3-1), Blues has expanded their winning line to nine matches and was a point behind their central division rivals at Tuesday’s game against Detroit Red Wings.
The Wild remained before Blues on Monday and forced overtime in New Jersey by coming back from a couple of a goal during the third period. Vinnie Hinostroza scored early in the third before Matt Brody gathered a goal with 2:08 left.
“It is obviously a huge point,” Hinostroza said. “Especially when we’re down 2-1 late.”
-Field level media
