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New York Rangers Playoff Picture/Lottery Look for Saturday, December 29

By Steve Paulus

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 29: The New York Rangers shake hands with the Tampa Bay Lightning after the Lighting defeated the Ranges by a score of 2-0 in Game Seven of the Eastern Conference Finals during the 2015 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Madison Square Garden on May 29, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - MAY 29: The New York Rangers shake hands with the Tampa Bay Lightning after the Lighting defeated the Ranges by a score of 2-0 in Game Seven of the Eastern Conference Finals during the 2015 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Madison Square Garden on May 29, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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DALLAS, TX – JUNE 22: A general view of the first thirty-one selections are shown on the board after the first round of the 2018 NHL Draft at American Airlines Center on June 22, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)
DALLAS, TX – JUNE 22: A general view of the first thirty-one selections are shown on the board after the first round of the 2018 NHL Draft at American Airlines Center on June 22, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images) /

The Lottery Look

Only two games last night mattered when it comes to draft lottery position and the New York Rangers.   In the standings, by winning the Islanders dropped a position away from the worst record, moving ahead of Dallas and Vancouver.

Ottawa and Florida both lost and that didn’t help as they both have fewer points than the Rangers.  Four points still separate the Rangers from the team with the fewest points in the league. As you can see below, the standings are incredibly close and they should remain that way for a while.

As of today, tankathon.com has the Rangers with a 8.2% chance of a top three pick and a 2.5% chance of the top pick overall.

The standings (worst is first)

Teams                  GP     W-L-OTL     PTS   ROW
1. Los Angeles   38      15-20-3       33      14
2. New Jersey     36       13-16-7      33      13
3. St Louis            35      15-16-4      34       15
4. Chicago            40       14-20-6      34       14
5. Arizona             37      16-19-2      34       14
6. Ottawa             38       15-19-4      34      15
7. Philadelphia    36       15-16-5      35      13
8. Carolina            36       15-16-5      35      14
9. Detroit              39       15-18-6      36      13
10. Florida            36       15-15-6      36      14
11. Rangers         36       15-14-7      37      10
12. Minnesota     36       17-16-3      37      17
13. Edmonton     37       18-16-3      39      17
14. Vancouver     40       18-18-4      40      17
15. Dallas             38       19-16-3       41     19
16. Islanders        36       19-13-4      42      17

Who to root for:

Wow, it’s a busy Saturday night and practically every game involves a team the Rangers are battling for lottery placement.   Going into the action the Rangers have the 11th worst record.  By the end of the night, they could be tied for seventh worst.

Hurricanes @ Devils – Carolina and New Jersey are both worse than the Rangers, with the Devils the worse of the two.  So, hope for a Devils win, in overtime.

Islanders @ Maple Leafs –  The Isles have a better record than the Rangers, five points ahead.  If they can beat Toronto and John Tavares, it hurts their lottery position. That’s always good news for Ranger fans.

Capitals @ Senators – Ottawa is only three points worse than New York, but the Rangers have two games in hand.  If the Blueshirts are to pass the Senators, they need Ottawa to win some games like this one.

Flyers @ Panthers – A toss-up as both of these teams have worse records than New York.  So, for lottery purposes, root for the Flyers to win in overtime.

Penguins @ Blues – One of those unusual games where the optimists and the pessimists can agree on who to root for.  Go Blues!

Red Wings @ Stars – Detroit is below New York, Dallas is above.  Root for a Red Wings win, but overtime would be nice.

 Blackhawks @ Avalanche,  Coyotes @ Ducks, Golden Knights @ Kings – Three Western Conference games where Ranger fans should root for upsets. Chicago, Arizona and Los Angeles are all worse than the Ranger, so root for the underdogs.

Canucks @ Flames,  Wild @ Jets, Sharks @ Oilers – Minnesota has the same number of points as the Rangers.  Edmonton and Vancouver are just ahead of the Blueshirts.  For lottery purposes, it would nice to open up some breathing room. So, root for the Canucks, Wild and Oilers to pull off upsets.

This new feature has ruffled some feathers among Blue Line Station readers.  Some have derided the Playoff Picture as a delusional effort with the Rangers doomed to miss the post-season.  Okay, for those folks we have the Lottery Look.   Then, there are the folks who firmly believe that the Rangers have a shot at the post-season and the Playoff Picture is for them.

Next. What to make of the Lias Andersson situation. dark

What is unusual about this season is that amid the mediocrity of a parity-driven NHL, the Rangers are giving us reason for both optimism AND pessimism.  For that, I guess, we should be thankful.  So, read the page you want to read and ignore the page you don’t want to.  And feel free to comment if you think this is a good or bad idea.

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