Once the trade deadline passed, the Rangers began playing 20 games in 38 days to close out the regular season.
They just finished a grueling five-game series of two sets in seven days.
Three of those five contests were in Carolina, Tampa Bay, and Pittsburgh.
The road trip ended with a divisional game between the Devils and Islanders.
“A lot of the guys who played in the American League are kind of used to it, but some of them aren’t,” Johnny Brodzinski said of the recent schedule. “It’s definitely tough. Especially in the early games, we had 3 o’clock games. [on Saturday in Pittsburgh]1 o’clock game [Sunday against the Islanders]. I couldn’t make excuses, so [the Isles] also played [Saturday]. It was just a good effort on our part. ”
The schedule won’t ease up from here considering a three-game week is currently on deck. After playing the Jets at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, the Rangers will travel to Boston to play the Bruins, the second-place team in the NHL as of Monday, on Thursday.
The good news for the Rangers is that they don’t have any back-to-back games left on their schedule.
They finished the second game of the series with an amazing record of 11 wins, 1 loss, and 0.
“This is preparation and following our system in quick succession like this,” Vincent Trocheck said. “If you can stay within your structure, things get a little easier.”
The Rangers only have a multi-city road trip remaining, heading to Colorado and Arizona on March 28th and 30th. They will then play a one-off road trip in Detroit on April 5th before concluding their road schedule on Long Island on April 9th.
“Obviously there are a lot of games played in a short period of time, but I think it comes down to the will in the locker room,” Miller said. “We have a lot of guys that can step up and are playing really good hockey right now. It was fun.”
The Rangers defense scored six points in Sunday’s 5-2 win over the Islanders, giving them 172 points from the D-League this season. This ranked third among the NHL entering Monday’s game.
