NHL

RANGERS LOOK TO TAKE BREAK

Approaching the NHL All-Star break, the Rangers are about as bipolar as a hockey team can be. Win five, lose seven. Look awful in wins, look great in losses. Skate stride-for-stride with some of the best teams in the league, look like a pee-wee squad against the dregs.

After tomorrow’s game against Atlanta, the Rangers will have six days before their next game, in which time Tom Renney and his crew will try to refocus their team.

“I think we can come back [after the break] to some significant components in our game plan,” Renney said yesterday at practice. “I think [the break] really helps you come home, as a coaching staff, just reviewing where you are, where you want to be, and how you’re going to get there.”

The momentum for this talented but inconsistent squad right now is very delicate and can be pushed either way by tomorrow afternoon’s matchup.

“We want to go into the break with some good momentum and good victories,” Jaromir Jagr said. “[This game] is huge for us.”

Although Renney had not made any definite decisions as of yesterday, the experiment of mixing and matching player combinations in order to find cohesive linemates was ongoing. The offensive powerhouse of Jagr-Michael Nylander-Martin Straka seems to be set for now, but everything else, including the playing status of Adam Hall, Jason Ward and Darius Kasparaitis (healthy scratches from Tuesday’s 1-0 loss to the Devils), was undetermined.

One familiar combo that did skate together yesterday was Ryan Hollweg and Jed Ortmeyer, who were two parts of the high-energy HMO line (including Dominic Moore, now with the Penguins) last year.

“When teams are clamping down on [Jagr-Nylander-Straka], if we can help out by going out there and having a good energy shift, getting the crowd and the team into the game, that’s going to benefit our team in the long run,” said Ortmeyer, who returned from a pulmonary embolism on Jan. 2.

What will benefit the team even more would be going into the layoff with a solid win in the forefront of their minds.

“We would really like to punctuate our last game properly so we can at least go into our break feeling decent about that,” Renney said. “And then really come out hard after the All-Star break and be the team we know we have to be if we’re going to secure a playoff spot.”