Rangers saved season with win before 4 Nations break, still have long road to playoffs

The Senators fell behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for third place in the Atlantic Division (the Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs own the top two spots) by losing three times in regulation last week during a trip to Florida – twice to the Lightning and once to the Panthers.

The good news for Ottawa is that they play their first three games after the break at home – two of them against teams currently out of the playoffs (Montreal Canadiens and San Jose Sharks. Also, starting goaltender Linus Ullmark is back after missing six weeks with a back problem – although he lost his first two starts after returning last week.

The Rangers have beaten the Senators twice at Madison Square Garden this season, 2-1 on Nov. 1 and 5-0 on Jan. 21. They make their lone trip to Canadian Tire Centre on March 7 for a Saturday matinee.

The Red Wings have been one of the NHL’s hottest teams since Todd McLellan took over as coach during the Christmas break.

They’ve jumped into a playoff spot thanks to a pair of seven-game winning streaks since the coaching change. The second one ended Saturday when they lost 6-3 to the Lightning at home.

Before that, they swept a road trip that included the three Western Canada teams and the Seattle Kraken

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.

The Rangers may have saved their season on Saturday by rallying in the third period to beat the Jackets at Nationwide Arena, but the loss meant that instead of spending the break holding the second wild card, Columbus was on the outside looking in after losing its last four games (0-3-1).

The Blue Jackets also took a big hit on Feb. 2 when their top goal-scorer, Kirill Marchenko, sustained a broken jaw when he was hit by a puck while sitting on the bench. He’s out indefinitely. They are also without top-six center Sean Monahan, who is expected to be sidelined until at least mid-March with a wrist injury.

The Rangers have won both games against Columbus this season; the first was a 1-0 shootout win at the Garden on Jan. 18. The Metropolitan Division rivals have two games remaining. Columbus comes to the Garden again on March 9 and hosts New York six nights later.

The Bruins split their last 10 games before the break, and they haven’t won more than two in a row since winning four straight in the first week of December. David Pastrnak (28 goals, 68 points) and Brad Marchand (20 goals, 44 points) have been the only serious scoring threats, and goalies Jeremy Swayman and Joonas Korpisalo each has a save percentage below .900.

Boston plays its first three games after the break at home before hitting the road for five of the next seven. The B’s are a different team home and way; they are 18-9-3 at TD Garden but 9-15-3 away from it.

That difference showed in the season series against the Rangers – the home team won all three games. The Rangers won 2-1 at the Garden on Jan. 2, then rallied in the third period for a 3-2 win on Feb. 5 — four days after losing 6-3 in Boston.

We’ll assume that the Buffalo Sabres (22-27-5), Philadelphia Flyers (24-26-7) and Pittsburgh Penguins (23-25-9) are too far behind and have too many teams in front of them to have a realistic chance at the postseason. But there are two other teams behind the Rangers that still have a realistic chance to make the postseason.

The Islanders had a lost weekend before the break, losing to the Winnipeg Jets and Minnesota Wild in a back-to-back after winning eight of their previous nine games. They played well against the Jets, the NHL’s top team, but fell apart against the Wild – allowing five unanswered goals in a 6-3 loss.

Injuries continue to hamper the Islanders. They lost their most dynamic offensive forward, Mathew Barzal, with a knee injury on Feb. 1, the same night defenseman Scott Mayfield went down with a lower-body injury. They were already without two other top-four defensemen, Noah Dobson and Ryan Pulock. In fact, half of the defense corps that played the last few games before the break (Tony DeAngelo, Scott Perunovich and Adam Boqvist) weren’t with the Islanders three weeks ago.

They’re also missing backup goaltender Magnus Hogberg, who had been superb before he was injured on Jan. 22 and hasn’t played since.

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.

No team might have been happier to get some time off than the Canadiens, who’ve hit the skids after being one of the NHL’s hottest teams for the first three weeks after the Christmas break.

Back-to-back weekend losses at home to the Devils (4-0) and Lightning (5-3) dropped the Canadiens to 1-7-1 in their last nine games before the 4 Nations break. They’ve been outscored 37-18 during their slide and have looked like the team that appeared to be ready to pack it in six weeks ago.

The Canadiens return to action at Ottawa on Feb. 22, then play three of their next four games against division tail-enders – the San Jose Sharks come to Bell Centre on Feb. 28, and Montreal has a home-and-home against Buffalo on March 1-3.

The Rangers finished their season series against Montreal with a 2-0-1 record. They won 7-2 in Montreal on Oct. 22 and 4-3 at the Garden on Nov. 30 before a 5-4 overtime loss on Jan. 19.