Rangers have not been at a loss when describing their game in recent weeks.
They improved from the lowest point of the slide, even if their results and place in the standings didn't change much.
“It's a different atmosphere,” Vincent Trocheck told The Post's Larry Brooks last week.
And the Rangers finally got a result to back up that claim, picking up five of the six points from their three-game trip to the West Coast.
They have earned points in seven of their past eight games and enter Saturday's game against the Blue Jackets on a six-game winning streak — starting a four-game series against the first team to beat in playoff contention.
“It feels like the first time since Christmas,” forward Riley Smith said Thursday after a 5-3 win over Utah Hockey Club. “We're playing a different brand of hockey.”
So, in a sense, Rangers are on a steep rise heading into the next few games compared to the rest of the season, and if they keep accumulating points and winning, they might have a chance to leapfrog the team in front of them. I don't know.
They are in second place for the wild card spot, four points behind the Bruins.
Columbus is on a six-game winning streak and is only five points behind the Rangers, but they were 16-17-6 in the opening game.
The Rangers will face the Blue Jackets for the first time in the 2024-25 season, but the Rangers have won five of the past seven games against Columbus.
The Blueshirts will then face the Canadiens, Senators and Flyers, all of whom are ranked higher than the Rangers but outside of the playoff picture.
They have 4 wins and 1 loss in games against these three teams in 2024-25, with a difference of 2 points, 2 points, and 1 point respectively in the wild card race.
Even when the Rangers were at their worst, the teams clustered around the Eastern Conference's wild-card spots offered a path to salvaging the season.
To finally figure it all out.
If they want to, they can go into the deadline while still in position to make a deal, and then use the remaining core players to rebuild their roster for a final postseason appearance.
There is still ground to be made for that scenario to become a reality.
But after a recent stretch, the Rangers have begun that process.
And if that momentum becomes sustainable during the next game, it could finally start to rise.
“It's definitely important,” Artemi Panarin, who scored his team-leading 18th and 19th goals against Utah, said Thursday of his five West Coast points. “It was a great road trip for us, so we'll be ready for the next game, which is a very important game against Columbus.”
After Artur Kaliyev scored his first goal since joining the Rangers on Thursday, the team said the Blueshirts have gotten points from 26 different players this year, tied for the most in the NHL.
Kaliyev was granted waivers last week and logged at least 12 minutes of ice time for the second time in three games.
With back-to-back games scheduled for this weekend against the Rangers, goaltender Jonathan Quick will have another chance to become the first American-born goaltender to reach 400 career wins. Quick has lost his last two starts and is stuck at .399.
