ATLANTA -Unquestionably, the Rangers are bigger, stronger and tougher than they have been since last making the playoffs six long seasons ago. Of course, that will only make them more disappointing than ever if they don’t get in. But if not, they are a lot more likely to go out with a bang than a whimper.
As evidenced Sunday in Washington, when they wouldn’t let Jason Doig get away without a punishing check to the oft-concussed Eric Lindros, they stick up for each other. With Lindros and Bobby Holik running a bulldozing service, with Matthew Barnaby and Sandy McCarthy, Dale Purinton and Darius Kasparaitis all taking a piece of an opponent on almost every shift, they can stick it to you, too.
Thus, if the Rangers can’t make eighth-place stick, the likely irony will be that they ran out of skill, not resolve, last night’s game here being one in which they had an opportunity to demonstrate that this time, they will not fade away like they have in past Februarys and Marches.
The Rangers can’t afford three-game losing streaks, not with 29 to play, and the teams they have to beat out holding as many as three games in hand. After being taken aback by Atlanta’s new discipline Saturday at Madison Square Garden, the approach taken Sunday in Washington was more consistent with what can work, never mind the fact that penalty-killing, a strength during the 8-3-1 run that preceded these last two losses, broke down terribly at the MCI Center.
“Got to grind,” said Lindros yesterday morning, nodding at the suggestion of the importance of last night’s game. “Got to grind.”
You have to look over your shoulder when you play the Rangers now, but going into last night’s game, they were still looking up at five teams in a six-way race for what will likely be two spots.
That would not likely be the case if Brian Leetch had not missed the last 25 games and Pavel Bure the last 23. The importance of getting them back is not easy to overstate. But the very fact that the Rangers had an 8-3-1 run without both players is indicative of a team that has refused to go away quietly.
“We’re a better team,” said Mark Messier. “It’s more obvious when we are healthy, but in almost every way we are better. I think everybody can look in here and say we’re a playoff team. Now, somehow we have to make that happen.”
The task is a lot more daunting than just making up two points over 29 games. Eleven of the next 14 are on the road, including a six-game February trip in which the Rangers will face only one team, Buffalo, that doesn’t have a winning record.
The Rangers have three remaining with Philadelphia, three with New Jersey, and only five with the teams jostling for seventh and eighth place, three of those being with the Islanders.
“You wish you had a better schedule, but that doesn’t really matter if you are playing well,” said Messier. “Every night is a gut check, every next game is bigger than the last.”
And every one an opportunity for the Rangers to show that however the chips fall, they won’t lose the new one perched on their shoulders. It is the compass that this time at least points a better direction, one they have a fighting chance to follow.