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Game 45: NYR 4 NJD 1, Strong First Keeps Destiny in Rangers' Hands

April 22, 2013, 7:58 AM ET [233 Comments]
Jan Levine
New York Rangers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Four points in three games. That's all that stands between the Rangers clinching a berth and sitting home for the spring. Say what you want about the level of competition they played, but the goal, as always in each and every game, is beat who is on your schedule that days. That's all, nothing more, nothing less. Did it matter that the Rangers had possibly the toughest schedule on the league in January? No, should it matter that the three wins have come against 'weaker' competition, no, because a win is a win is a win.

Three straight wins in which the Rangers have scored 18 goals, enabling them to lead the NHl in goals scored in April. A 4-1 win over a heated rival to knock off a third straight team out if the playoffs. For all those saying its revenge for last year, to me, it's a far as you can get from there. Winning on Sunday against the Devils does absolutely nothing for me to take away the bitter taste of the ECF defeat, the only thing that might is a win this year in it, and even then, I am unsure it would help reduce the sting of last year's loss.

Positive signs abound on the Rangers. The one comment that I saw, which resonated the best for me and its something I have been saying for a while, came from Henrik Lundqvist. He said: "We're doing a lot of the little things, all of the small details, and that's why we are scoring more.. You can tell the guys are making great plays now and it all starts with confidence." Little things resulting in big things resulting in a confident team. The simple pass. Being in the right place. Breaking up an opposition's offensive foray. Going hard to the net. All of these "little" things add up, which lately has resulted in a bushel full of goals.

It was good to see Taylor Pyatt get his first in 26 games in his 800th contest. Putting him on a line with Brad Richards, two assists Sunday to continue his recent roll, and Mats Zuccarellonhas paid tremendous dividends. Captain Cally got it all started and ended it Sunday, buoyed by hard work by Hagelin and Stepan, who is rising up the scoring ranks. A great small move by Tortorella was to split up Giradi and McDonagh, so that at one of them would be in the ice against either the Elias or Kovy line, McD was with Stralman and Girardi with MDZ, with the big three playing at least 23 minutes each.

As others pointed out, with the Connecticut Whale being eliminated from playoff contention, we should see several players with the Rangers. Let McIlrath soak all he can from Girardi etc., let Miller rehab and get stronger with the parent club. Let Oscar Lindblom see MSG in full force.

Four points in three games. Seventh and maybe sixth possibly available. Six days left to the regular season. It's there for the taking, now grab it.

The Drive for the Playoffs (will run this in every blog for the remainder of the season):

Since we all are focusing on where every other team is, and I can understand that, because we all are scoreboard watching. Below are where teams from 5-10 sit in the standings. Though as you know, I usually say that we should just worry on how the Rangers play and everything else will hopefully take care of itself, since if they play like they did two weeks ago, no team in the East worries me that much that I don't think they can beat them when they get in. If they don't, even if they make it, it will be a quick playoff stint.

The Rangers have three games remaining (@Florida, @Carolina and home on April 27 against NJ to end the season). No one has done Rangers any favors lately, including the Islanders/Winnipeg going to OT and Toronto winning Saturday, but as I said above, worry about what you can control and the rest will take care of itself, especially since they control their own destiny.

As of Monday morning, here is how the standings look:

5th seed: Maple Leafs (25-14-5, 55 points) – three games remaining (6-3-1 last 10), 25 non-SOW
6th seed: Islanders (24-16-5, 53 points) – three games remaining, all on the road (8-0-2 last 10), 20 non-SO wins, beat WPG 5-4 in SO on Saturday
7th seed: Senators (23-15-6, 52 points) – four games remaining (4-6 last 10, lost Saturday after winning four in a row which came on heels of a five-game losing streak), 19 non-SO wins
8th seed: Rangers (24-17-4, 52 points) – three games remaining (7-2-1 last 10), 20 non-SO wins
9th seed: Jets (23-19-3, 49 points) – three games remaining (5-4-1 last 10, lost in SO on Saturday to Islanders after winning five in a row, three points behind Washington for division lead and Capitals played same amount of games, as noted above, the Rangers have one game in hand but also trail WPG in ROW), 21 non-SO wins

Here is the remaining schedules for Rangers, Caps, Maple Leafs, Senators, Isles, and Jets:

Rangers: @Hurricanes, @Panthers, and Devils.

Caps: Jets (Tuesday), Sens (Thursday), and Bruins (Sabres).

Maple Leafs: @TB (Wednesday), @Panthers (Thursday) and Canadiens (Saturday)

Senators: Pitt (Monday), @Capitals (Thursday), Flyers (Saturday) and @Bruins (Monday)

Isles: @Hurricanes (Tuesday), @Flyers (Thursday), and @Sabres (Friday).

Jets: @Sabres (Monday), @Capitals (Tuesday), and Habs (Thursday).
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