Rangers fail to gain ground but don’t lose any in Eastern Conference playoff scramble
The New York Rangers closed an excellent month of January with a dud of a game against the Carolina Hurricanes at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night. The only thing that takes a bit of the sting out of the 4-0 loss is that five of the six teams they’re battling with for the two wild cards in the Eastern Conference also lost.
The Rangers gave up the first of two goals by Andrei Svechnikov 56 seconds after the opening face-off and spent the rest of the night chasing the game. But few of their shots severely tested Carolina goaltender Frederik Andersen before the ’Canes put the game away with three goals in 3:01 of playing time bridging the second and third periods. Svechnikov got his second of the night at 19:29 of the second and assisted on Sebastian Aho’s goal 1:04 into the third.
Seth Jarvis’ goal at 2:30 started a parade to the Garden exits not long afterward.
Fortunately for the Rangers, all but one of the six teams in the playoff scramble who played Tuesday and Wednesday also lost, meaning that while New York missed a golden chance to gain ground, it didn’t lose any. The only playoff hopeful to win was the Islanders, who made it five victories in a row when they defeated the Colorado Avalanche 5-2 at UBS Arena on Tuesday. They are a point behind their big-city rivals.
However, the Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens all lost on Tuesday, followed by the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday.
The Bruins, who own the first wild card, were demolished 7-2 in Buffalo, where Sabres forward Tage Thompson and J.J. Peterka each had a hat trick. The Lightning returned home from a four-game road trip and lost 4-1 to the 31st-place Chicago Blackhawks, and the Canadiens lost 4-1 at Bell Centre to the Winnipeg Jets. The New Jersey Devils, who lost 4-2 in Philadelphia on Monday, avenged that loss by blanking the Flyers two nights later.
The Rangers (24-22-4) finished January with an 8-3-3 record — although if they miss the playoffs, the points they left on the table might be the reason. The Rangers dropped OT decisions to the Dallas Stars, the Avalanche and the Canadiens, all in games they led well into the third period. Add that to the 5-4 loss to Colorado on Sunday, a game they allowed the Avalanche to score the game-winner with 14.7 seconds left, and it’s safe to say the Rangers can’t be happy about the points they’ve let get away.
Now it’s time for some serious scoreboard watching. The Rangers are in the midst of a three-day break in the schedule before they begin a stretch of five games in eight days prior to the 4 Nations Face-off break. The Rangers visit the Bruins on Saturday afternoon, followed by a game against the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday to get the final stretch underway.
Here’s a look at the playoff scramble in the East (all records through Wednesday’s games).
Related: Mind-numbing Rangers mistakes threatening to finally sink season
Metropolitan Division top three
None of the top three teams in the Metropolitan Division look like they’ll be threatened by anyone. The Washington Capitals (34-11-5) are the leaders in the race for the Presidents’ Trophy, the Hurricanes (31-16-4) are second in the division and the Devils (29-18-6) trail them by two points.
The Devils lead everyone else in the division by at least nine points, which gives them some runway as they continue to deal with the loss of starting goaltender Jacob Markstrom, who was ruled out of the 4 Nations tournament on Wednesday because of a sprained knee ligament sustained in a 5-1 win against Boston on Jan. 22. Jake Allen is 2-1-0 in three starts since Markstrom’s injury and will be expected to carry the load. He made 24 saves to shut out the Flyers on Wednesday.
However, as long as Markstrom doesn’t miss more time than expected (4-6 weeks), it’s hard to imagine the Rangers (or anyone else) being able to overtake the Devils.
Related: Rangers look to ‘keep the positivity’ heading into February schedule
Ahead of the Rangers (current wild cards)
Boston Bruins (25-21-6, 56 points)
The Bruins were 5-1-1 in their previous seven games before they got torched in Buffalo. The Sabres lit up Jeremy Swayman for six goals on 32 shots, and David Pastrnak, the NHL First Star last week, was limited to a garbage-time second assist.
Boston goes home for its next three games, hosting the Jets on Thursday before the Rangers come in two days later. The Minnesota Wild visit TD Garden on Feb. 4 before the Bruins come to the Garden for a back-to-back the next night.
The Rangers edged the Bruins 2-1 at the Garden on Jan. 2 and go to Boston for their nationally televised matinee before hosting them four nights later.
Tampa Bay Lightning (26-20-3, 55 points)
It’s hard to imagine than any of the 19,092 fans at Amalie Arena on Tuesday gave the Blackhawks, who are next-to-last in the overall standings, a chance to win. Though the Lightning lost three of four games on the road last week, winning only a 4-3 overtime decision at Chicago last Friday, they were expected to make quick work of the Blackhawks in their return home.
Instead, Chicago spotted Tampa Bay an early goal by Brayden Point before a spectacular shot by Connor Bedard tied the game, and scored three more times for Arvid Soderblom, who made 34 saves in the stunning win.
Tampa Bay plays its next four games at home, beginning Thursday against the Los Angeles Kings. The Islanders come in Saturday and the Ottawa Senators, who’ve jumped the Lightning for third place in the Atlantic Division behind the Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs, play back-to-back games in Tampa on Feb. 4 and 6.
The Rangers lost 6-2 at Amalie Arena on Dec. 28. Tampa Bay comes to the Garden twice in the final 10 days of the regular season.
Ahead of the Rangers (but not in the playoffs)
Columbus Blue Jackets (24-19-7, 55 points)
The Blue Jackets have had to sit and watch the scoreboard since Saturday night, when they defeated the Kings 3-2 in overtime on a goal by Kirill Marchenko. That one home game is sandwiched between a pair of four-game road trips.
Columbus was 1-2-1 on the first trip, including a 1-0 shootout loss to the Rangers at the Garden on Jan. 18. They’re off until Thursday, when the second four-gamer begins against the Golden Knights.
The Rangers and Blue Jackets have three games remaining. The next one is in Columbus on Feb. 8 and is the last game for each team before the 4 Nations break. Columbus comes to the Garden again on March 9 and hosts New York six nights later.
Montreal Canadiens (24-21-5, 53 points)
The Canadiens stole a point Saturday when they overcame a pair of two-goal deficits before losing 4-3 in overtime to the Devils at Bell Centre. But they were beaten soundly at home three nights later by the high-flying Jets, the best team in the Western Conference.
Montreal hosts Minnesota on Thursday before beginning a three-game California trip on Sunday against the Anaheim Ducks.
The Canadiens, seeking their first playoff berth since losing to the Lightning in the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, have gotten back into the playoff race after a 5-11-2 start looked like it would doom them to another early summer vacation. The Rangers were 2-0-1 in the season series, winning 7-2 in Montreal on Oct. 22 and 4-3 at MSG on Nov. 30 before the OT loss 10 days ago.
Detroit Red Wings (24-21-5, 53 points)
The Red Wings continued their post-Christmas surge under new coach Todd McLellan on Monday by rallying from an early two-goal deficit for a 5-2 win against the Kings. Lucas Raymond, who continues to blossom into an offensive force, had a goal and three assists. Detroit has won three in a row, all with Cam Talbot in goal, to move within two points of the second wild card.
The Red Wings head out for a four-game swing through Western Canada and Seattle that begins against the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday.
The Rangers swept the three games between the teams in a season series that ended before Veterans Day, outscoring the Red Wings by a total of 13-3.
Tied with or trailing the Rangers
We’ll assume that the Pittsburgh Penguins (50 points in 53 games) and the Sabres (43 in 50 games), who are last in their respective divisions, have too few points and too many teams in front of them to have a realistic chance at the postseason. But there are two other teams that are even or just behind the Rangers and still hold realistic playoff hopes.
Philadelphia Flyers (23-23-6, 52 points)
The Flyers looked like they might be ready to fold after back-to-back road losses against the Rangers (6-1) on Thursday and the Islanders (3-1) on Friday. But a couple of days off appeared to give them a spark on Monday, when they knocked off the Devils 4-2 at Wells Fargo Center in the first of a home-and-home set, only to lose 5-0 in Newark on Wednesday.
The Flyers return home to host the Islanders on Thursday before visiting Colorado on Sunday.
The Flyers’ split with the Devils and the Rangers loss to the Hurricanes left the two Metropolitan Division rivals tied, three points out of the second wild card — although the Rangers have played two fewer games.
The Rangers and Flyers have split two games this season. The Flyers won 3-1 at Wells Fargo Center on Black Friday before losing at the Garden last week. The teams don’t play again until the Flyers come to the Garden on April 9.
New York Islanders (22-20-7, 51 points)
The Islanders have worked their way onto the fringes of the playoff chase in the East by winning five straight games, all at home, giving them eight wins in their past 10 games. They got a superb effort by Ilya Sorokin on Tuesday in the win against Colorado and have allowed just seven goals during the winning streak.
However, injuries have hampered the Isles all season, and they lost a couple of key pieces — defensemen Noah Dobson and Ryan Pulock — last week. They were also without backup goalie Marcus Hogberg on Tuesday after he was removed before the start of overtime Saturday in a 3-2 win against Carolina because of an upper-body injury. They’ve already added ex-Rangers defenseman Tony DeAngelo to fill in for Dobson and acquired defenseman Scott Perunovich from the St. Louis Blues on Monday.
But losing Pulock and/or Hogberg for any length of time (both went on injured reserve Monday) could be fatal to their already-slim playoff hopes, especially with five of their final six games before the 4 Nations break on the road, beginning Saturday at Tampa Bay.
The Rangers haven’t played their local rival since a 5-2 win at the Garden on Nov. 2; they play three times in the final seven weeks of the season, beginning Feb. 25 on Long Island.
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