No history on line, but Rangers still Jacked up

Alain Vigneault on Thursday allowed himself to envision what it would’ve been like if the Rangers were heading into Columbus on Saturday with the Blue Jackets having an opportunity to set a new NHL record for consecutive victories, one it turns out the Jackets won’t have as their 16-game winning streak was snapped Thursday night in Washington.

“To tell you the truth I did think about it a little bit, but it wasn’t meant to be,” Vigneault said. “Now I’m thinking about winning the game — I was thinking about winning the game, but it’s a little different right now.”

The Rangers’ tilt Saturday night against their former coach John Tortorella and Co. isn’t as must-see as it would’ve been, but for them it remains a big test in what is their final game before their five-day bye week against the top team in the NHL.

When the Rangers (27-13-1) last played Columbus (27-6-5,) 11 days before the Blue Jackets’ streak began, they lost, 4-2, on Nov. 18 after their three wins in western Canada.

“It’s still the same team,” Henrik Lundqvist said after Friday’s practice in Greenburgh. “It would’ve been a big hype obviously going into the game (Saturday) and now it’s more of a us-going-to-Columbus game. But I think going into that building, it’s intense every time. So I don’t think we need that extra buildup.”

Columbus outscored opponents 62-27 during their winning streak, excluding goals awarded for shootout victories, before falling 5-0 to the Capitals on Thursday. Sergei Bobrovsky started 14 of the 16 games and had a 1.64 goals against average and .941 save percentage during the streak. “I feel like it doesn’t really matter if they lost or actually if they had won (Thursday) night,” Lundqvist said. “What they’ve done over the month, it’s very impressive. The league is so competitive, and to be able to pull that one off is impressive and I think it shows they really bought into the system and they’ve paid attention to a lot of different details, because that’s what you have to do. You’re not gonna play your best every night, but they had a really good run. So we have to respect that team.”

Rookie Jimmy Vesey, who said he was under the weather this week but is recovering, had mixed feelings regarding the Blue Jackets’ loss Thursday night.

“You never want to be the one that they make history against, but it would’ve definitely I’m sure made the building that much more fun to play in,” Vesey said. “Yeah, I don’t know. I could’ve gone either way.

“It’s still a big game nonetheless.”

RANGERS AT BLUE JACKETS 7:00 on MSG2

GETTY