Fansided

Should New York Rangers Fans Actually Root For Ottawa Senators Tonight?

By Steven Carollo |

With a 4-2 win over the New Jersey Devils, the New York Rangers clinched the best record in the Eastern Conference and the best record in the entire NHL, earning them the Presidents’ Trophy.  But with everything you can possibly clinch in the regular season clinched, the Rangers still have two regular season games left.  So the main focus for the Rangers over these last two regular season games are to get healthy for the postseason, but it also may not be such a bad idea to lose to the Ottawa Senators tonight at Madison Square Garden, in what is the Rangers last regular season home game of the 2014-15 season.

New York Rangers
New York Rangers /

New York Rangers

So why is it not such a bad idea for the Rangers to lose to the Senators tonight, you ask?

Well, with the Senators and
Boston Bruins tied for the last wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, and with the Rangers having to play the winner of that final wild card spot in the 1st round of the playoffs, it may be beneficial for the Rangers to have the Senators in that spot over the Bruins.

Now do not get me wrong. This is NOT rooting to play the Senators but instead just rooting to not play the Bruins.  Senators are on a great run and are no push over, however, the Rangers were able to defeat the Senators by a wide margin in Ottawa in the middle of their hot streak while vs. a Bruins team that has struggled for the majority of this season, the Rangers finished the season series with a 1-2 record against Boston.

I don’t know what it is but the Rangers just can never seem to beat the Bruins.  This season, the Rangers not only are going to finish the regular season with the most amount of points in the league, but also currently have the most amount of road wins in the league as well. However, in the 3 games this season vs. the Bruins, the Rangers lost both games on the road by multiple goals, and for lack of a better word, were dominated in both games.

Then you have the playoff history between the two teams, where the Rangers have only beaten the Bruins in 3 playoff series out of 10.

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Now obviously the Rangers are not going to tank tonight’s game, but if you are a Rangers’ fan, do you actually root for the Senators to beat the Rangers?  A Senators win would hurt the Bruins chances of making the playoffs and could result in the Rangers facing either the Senators or
Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1st round of the playoffs, while a Rangers win over the Senators tonight could result in the grim reality of a Rangers vs. Bruins or Detroit Red Wings 1st round playoff matchup.

Next: The New York Rangers' Top 5 MVPs of the 2014-15 Season

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