The Rangers stumbled a bit during one of the softer portions of the 2024-25 schedule, going 2-2 against lower-ranked clubs (Penguins, Kraken, Blackhawks, Sabres) at a time when the team could have capitalized on a winning streak. I won. To feel good.
The Blueshirts echoed similar sentiments after Wednesday night's 3-2 win over Buffalo to close out the game.
The focus now is on winning and moving up the Metropolitan Division standings.
“When you put stinky stuff on the ice at home, it hurts. It's not good, especially the way things have been for us so far,” Adam Fox said Monday, referring to the Rangers' 2-1 loss to the last-place Blackhawks. he said. “We've been trying to keep morale high and keep the good energy going. We're hoping to bring some couples together right now. Let's start with one.”
“I'm definitely going to play in this game.” [against the Sabres]I thought they fought to get it because they were two teams that just wanted a win. I have to go home and take care of business. ”
However, this was certainly a missed opportunity considering the challenges the Rangers have to overcome to finish this month.
Their schedule bounces between the top and bottom of the league, but gets progressively more difficult as the holidays approach.
Following back-to-back games against the No. 7 Kings and No. 18 Blues, the Rangers will play the bottom-place Predators before playing four top-10 clubs in their final five games of December.
What about other teams? The Lightning are always competitive.
The Rangers need to finish this month on a strong note if they want to stay in the postseason bracket.
If the playoffs started Thursday, they would be the first wild-card team in the Eastern Conference with 31 points.
That's certainly not the place to aim for for a club that sat at the top of the division for most of last season.
Lately, winning hasn't been pretty and losing has been ugly. That's true for both the players and second-year head coach Peter Laviolette.
The Rangers are still trying to get back on track with both the game and the season.
Hitting .500 over the past six games may be better than the five straight losses just before that.
Rangers hope this is a starting point and they can go further despite the bumpy road ahead.
“In a way, yes. [it doesn’t matter how the wins come]but I think we played good hockey at times,” Mika Zibanejad said. “I thought we played better than the result against Seattle, but we didn't get anything out of it. [The Buffalo game]I thought we played well, and we got the two points. You want to find a balance between being too greedy for everything to be perfect and winning all the time, and not being satisfied with the results or effort.
“Find the balance, find that combination. We did it. [Wednesday night]that's good. ”
