There’s no question the Rangers look like an entirely different team than they did just a month ago.
The crux of the difference? Simply the fact that they are now competitive.
Though that is the bare minimum of being a functioning team in the National Hockey League, and the Blueshirts don’t want to be just a part of it.
They still have aspirations to win the whole thing, hoist the Stanley Cup and make the internal debacle that played out on the ice earlier this season just a footnote in their championship story.
That appears to still be a possibility after the Rangers collected 13 points out of a possible 16 during their current eight-game point streak.
They’ve also secured 15 of a possible 20 points since the calendar flipped to 2025.
Playoffs may be back in the picture, considering the Rangers woke up Monday morning three points out of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, but there is still hardly any room for error.
“The chances were there, but we give up a lead late and you want to be able to hold that,” Adam Fox said after the Rangers had to settle for one point in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Canadiens on Sunday night in Montreal. “Past couple games we haven’t been able to do that. Big difference getting that two points instead of one.”
In all three of the Rangers’ overtime losses this year so far, they had a lead at some point in the third period.
Vincent Trocheck’s go-ahead power-play score at the 12:56 mark of the final frame against the Stars was wasted by a costly turnover, when K’Andre Miller lost the puck to Sam Steel before Thomas Harley cashed in to even the score.
Dallas won 5-4 in OT.
The Rangers also took a 2-1 lead into the third in Colorado, where the Avalanche scored with 1:13 left in regulation with an empty net and the extra skater on before taking a 3-2 OT victory.
It was a similar situation in Montreal on Sunday night, with the Rangers carrying a 4-3 lead into the third and allowing Juraj Slafkovsky to knot the game at 4-4 at the 12:52 mark.
The Canadiens never led once in the game, but still walked away with two points.
“Tight games,” Mika Zibanejad said of the Rangers’ five overtime appearances in their past seven games on Sunday. “The points are important. So if you’re going to lose, do you get a point out of it? Great, but that’s not what we wanted to do when we came here, obviously. We wanted the two points and we didn’t get them. Disappointing, especially having the lead in the third and not being able to close it out.”
The surge of overtimes comes after the Blueshirts competed in just one over their first 39 games.
That was also the second game of the season, which resulted in a 6-5 loss to the Utah Hockey Club.
All of the losses during their nosedive in the standings came in regulation.
It was a low bar for the Rangers to clear to show improvement from the previous couple months, but they have.
Points are points, but wins have to be sacred right now.
Another team ahead of them in the wild-card race, the Senators, are on deck.
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