INTO THE WILD
Rangers prep for playoffs with brutal final stretch
It would take a significant shift in the standings over the Rangers’ final 12 games of the season for them to be anywhere but the first wild-card spot when the Eastern Conference playoffs begin.
Surely they could go on a run, with a schedule that takes them to the three California teams the final weekend of March and then finishes with two games against the Penguins and one against the Capitals over the final five contests. But that likely will be when starting goalie Henrik Lundqvist is trying to reestablish his game following a layoff of between two and three weeks due to his hip injury, suffered on March 6 at Tampa Bay.
But rather than a full-on focus toward results, that stretch of fine-tuning is exactly what coach Alain Vigneault will want over this final 20 days or so. With a 15-point cushion between the Rangers and ninthplace going into play on Tuesday, even the steepest nosedive would hardly make missing the playoffs a possibility.
So it will be a bit of a relief for the Rangers to eventually get that coveted “checkmark” by their name, as Vigneault will start saying with regularity any day now. But more important is the big prize that waits in June, and one that can only come with the Rangers playing their best hockey as they enter the playoffs.
“We had this discussion last year,” Derek Stepan said recently, when the idea of crossing over into the weaker Atlantic Division side of the playoff bracket was brought up. “It’s about playing the right way and playing your best hockey when it comes into the playoffs.”
Stepan scored his first goal in what seemed like a lifetime — 23 games — when he got a dead-shank to go during the 4-1 victory in Detroit on Sunday night. It was muchneeded relief for a player that the Blueshirts need to be on his game if they have any chance of surviving the gauntlet of the postseason. Playoff success is so often predicated on depth down the middle, and Stepan and Mika Zibanejad need to be in form.
Same can be said for the Rangers’ special teams, which have now traded being hot and cold. The power play has seemingly busted out of its anemic month-long drought, going 4-for-9 over the past three games which immediately followed a run of 0-for-26, 1-for-40 and 3for-59 going back to Jan. 19.
Though now the penalty kill has dipped, allowing at least one power-play goal against in each of the previous four games while allowing five overall in the previous 15 man-down scenarios (66.7 percent).
“I think we’re at our best when we’re aggressive and one guy being aggressive and the other guys feeding off that while not giving them time,” captain Ryan McDonagh said about the penalty kill after a difficult 3-2 loss to the Lightning at the Garden on Monday night.
“I think I need to try to get back to being a little bit more aggressive and all on the same page. It’s something we’ve got to continue to work at because it’s going to be crucial down the stretch.”
So that’s the focus now — not just results, which likely won’t change where the Rangers start the postseason. Instead, it’s about sharpening parts of their game and some individuals’ play so that they are where they want to be at the end of the postseason.
“Every time this time of the year, regardless of where you are at, you can’t focus on the standings,” Stepan said. “You can watch them and keep an eye on them but our focus is getting better each night and focusing on the two points that are in front of us.”