Rangers strive to regain consistency before extended break

GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- The New York Rangers have reached a critical point in their season with two games remaining before an eight-day break.

"Is it make-or-break for the year? I can't answer that," Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said Thursday. "Is it a critical point? We'd like to win these two games to get back on track, win hockey games going into the break and come out of the break knowing you had a little bit of success in the six or seven games prior, you put a winning record together and you started to push."

The two games that remain before New York’s break are against the Vegas Golden Knights at Madison Square Garden on Friday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN) and the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday. After that, its next game isn’t until Feb. 5 against the Colorado Avalanche.

The Rangers (29-15-3) are still in first place in the Metropolitan Division, two points ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes. So, Laviolette is right that these next two games against Vegas and Ottawa will not make or break its season. New York will still be in a good spot even if it doesn’t come away with any points.

But that's not the point.

These games come at a time when the Rangers are struggling, and most notably still seething over a 3-2 overtime loss against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Tuesday, when they couldn't hold a 2-0 lead going into the third period.

They lost their first two games of a four-game road trip in Las Vegas and Los Angeles but came back from two goals down for a 5-2 win at the Anaheim Ducks and had a chance in San Jose to close it out strong. All they had to was play a smart, structured third period and they likely would have.

And had they held that two-goal lead against the Sharks, there would have been a more upbeat feeling at practice Thursday, a team riding a bit of a good wave having won two in a row and four of six.

"It leaves a bad taste in the mouth after the way we lose the game," center Mika Zibanejad said. "If we were down 2-0 and come back with a strong period and lose in overtime, it would be a little bit different. But we have the game, we can't close it out. If we get the two points, there it's probably a completely different tone in this locker room right now."

Instead, the Rangers are looking at their 4-6-2 record in January. Their confidence has been hard to sustain because their consistency, a hallmark of their first 35 games, has waned.

They were the top team in the NHL standings going into the new year with 25 wins in 35 games (25-9-1) and a .729 points percentage.

New York had it all going; ninth in goals per game (3.43), tied for seventh in goals against (2.69), first on the power play (30.9 percent) and fifth on the penalty kill (84.9 percent).

It had lost two games in a row once, and never more.

"We kind of went unscathed and a lot of the opportunities we were scoring on we were getting some good bounces going for us, and now they're going the other way," forward Blake Wheeler said. "That's kind of a vague response, but there's obviously things in our game we can work on to tighten up, some things 5-on-5 we can continue to harp on."

This month, the Rangers are tied for 24th in goals per game (2.58), 20th in goals-against (3.25), tied for 17th on the power play (19.4 percent) and 19th on the penalty kill (76.7 percent). Their .417 points percentage is tied for 23rd.

They were 0-3-1 from Jan. 6-13, then lost three of four out west (1-2-1).

"Are we talking about playing better? Absolutely," Zibanejad said. "But find a way to win these two games to go to the break leaving with a better feeling than we've had in the last couple of weeks."

When the struggles first began, starting with a 6-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes at home on Jan. 2, rush chances against were a problem. There were too many, and goalies Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick were left exposed because of it.

"As good as they are, you don't want to keep giving the other team Grade A chance after Grade A chance and just hoping they'll miraculously make every save," Zibanejad said. "I don't think we did that early on."

Laviolette said the Rangers have been better at limiting rush chances against the past few games. Now, it's more the big mistakes that are costing them.

A prime example happened early in the third period in San Jose, when defenseman Erik Gustafsson got the puck behind the net from Shesterkin and instead of going up the right-wing wall on his forehand, just moving the puck north and out of danger, he reversed it and gave it right to forward Nico Sturm, who put it in off Shesterkin to slice New York’s lead to 2-1.

It was a backbreaker that gave the Sharks life and started their comeback.

"You never want to go through these periods, but these hard times are usually what make or break teams," defenseman K'Andre Miller said. "I think we have to stay the course and know it's coming. The biggest thing we can take away from this is we're not playing all that bad. We're still doing good some good things that we can pick up from each and every game, but finding our consistency and getting back in that right general direction is going to be our best bet."