The New York Rangers spent Saturday afternoon practicing for the Colorado Avalanche, rooting for their next opponent to earn a regulation win over the Boston Bruins and preparing for two players slightly sooner than expected.
Locked in a tight race for a wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, the Rangers will attempt to earn at least a point in an 11th straight game Sunday afternoon when they host the Avalanche.
Colorado, in turn, is playing its second game since trading star Mikko Rantanen.
The Rangers are 7-0-3 in their past 10 games and 8-1-3 in their past 12. The hot streak is following an ugly 4-15-0 slide that sent the Rangers under the playoff line and forced the reigning Presidents’ Trophy winner to jostle with several other teams.
New York is coming off a pair of lopsided home victories.
The Rangers followed up a 5-0 rout of the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday by pulling away for a 6-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers two nights later.
New York also is coming off a highly productive outing from its six defensemen, who combined for three goals and five assists versus the Flyers. K’Andre Miller and Adam Fox each collected a goal and an assist while Braden Schneider also scored, marking the first time since Dec. 8, 2019, the Rangers saw all six defensemen collect at least one point.
“We know the team we have and we didn’t forget (how) to play hockey in a couple months,” New York forward Filip Chytil said. “Sometimes you have stretches like this in a season, it’s about the team and how it responds. I think for the last month we’re responding in a good way and that’s why we’re winning these hard games. We have to keep going like this.”
The Rangers are facing Colorado and the Carolina Hurricanes in their next two home games, opponents who were involved in a blockbuster trade on Friday. Colorado acquired Martin Necas and Jack Drury — a nephew of New York general manager Chris Drury — from the Hurricanes in exchange for Rantanen, whom they were unlikely to retain in free agency after the season.
“We would’ve faced them anyway, right?,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette told reporters at practice Saturday. “We’re playing both teams. Nothing changes. They just changed uniforms.”
Colorado rallied for a 3-2 overtime home victory against the Rangers on Jan. 14. Artturi Lehkonen scored the tying goal with 1:13 left in regulation and defenseman Devon Toews registered the game-winner 4:23 into overtime.
The Avalanche are 4-5-2 in their past 11 contests since scoring 28 goals in a six-game winning streak Dec. 19-Jan. 2.
In its first game since the trade, Colorado allowed three straight goals and took a 3-1 loss to the Bruins. Necas played on the top line with Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin and took two shots on goal in 21-plus minutes while being on the ice for all three even-strength goals.
“It’s pretty impressive playing with two of the best players in the world,” Necas said. “You can see that every day when you play against them. It’s fun to be out there with them. Just got to find my legs a little bit, get some sleep and I’ll be good tomorrow.”
–Field Level Media
