A really good night for the New York Rangers lottery hopes
By Steve Paulus
If the New York Rangers are going to keep winning games like the one against Boston, they will need their lottery rivals to win as well. Tonight, many of them cooperated.
Every single team out of the playoff picture was in action tonight except the Blueshirts. Of those fourteen teams, seven won their games and four made it to overtime. 11 out of fourteen lottery teams getting points is a very good night for the New York Rangers.
When it comes to their playoff hopes, the Rangers remain nine points out, now trailing the Pittsburgh Penguins instead of the Columbus Blue Jackets, who swapped spots in the standings. In the West, the St. Louis Blues knocked Vancouver Canucks back out of a playoff spot in that incredibly close race for the wild card.
The Lottery Look
Despite all of the success by their other non-playoff teams, the Rangers only slipped one place in the standings, from 12th worst to 11th. The race in the Lose for Hughes sweepstakes did get tighter with only six points separating the Rangers in 11th place from the Devils in second place. It’s going to be a roller coaster the rest of the season.
Ottawa shut out Anaheim who have now won only two games in their last 20. The Senators remain last overall, but by finally getting points, they tightened the race just a bit. The DUcks appear to be candidates for the worst record in the league as they dropped from 7th worst to to 5th.
The Blackhawks beat Vancouver in overtime 4-3. The win moved Chicago from 5th worst to 7th worst and they are only two points behind the Rangers. With the win, the Canucks were knocked out of a wild card slot and back into the lottery look. They are 12th worst with one point more than New York.
Edmonton beat the Wild 4-1 and moved from 8th to 9th place and are only one point behind the Rangers.
The Panthers had a huge 3-2 overtime win over the Penguins moving them up two slots in the standings. They are only two points behind the Rangers.
The Hurricanes beat the Sabres 6-5 in overtime. Both teams getting points helps the Rangers, but the Hurricanes win was very big for their playoff hopes. They are now only three points out of the last wild card berth. The Sabres are one point behind them and five points better than the Blueshirts.
The Kings ended the Flyers eight game winning streak with a 3-2 shootout win. The two points gives the resurgent Kings 50 points on the season and the Flyers salvaged a point to remain in 13th overall from the bottom with 55 points.
Even the Devils cooperated, taking the Islanders to overtime before losing 2-1 in a shootout. With the one point, the Devils have 48, six shy of the Rangers.
The disappointments were the lottery teams that lost. Detroit lost a squeaker to the Golden Knights 4-3 and Arizona were beaten by the Blue Jackets 4-2. With the losses, Detroit remains five points back of the Rangers and Arizona stays three points away.
The standings (Worst is first)
The standings (Worst is first)
Teams GP W-L-OTL PTS ROW
1. Ottawa 54 20-29-5 45 20
2. New Jersey 53 20-25-8 48 19
3. Detroit 54 21-26-7 49 19
4. Los Angeles 54 23-27-4 50 21
5. Anaheim 55 21-25-9 51 18
6. Arizona 54 23-26-5 51 21
7. Chicago 55 21-24-10 52 21
8. Florida 51 22-22-8 52 20
9. Edmonton 54 24-25-5 53 22
10. Colorado 54 22-22-9 53 22
11. Rangers 53 23-22-8 54 17
12. Vancouver 55 24-24-7 55 23
13. Philadelphia 54 24-23-7 55 22
14. Buffalo 53 26-20-7 59 23
15. Carolina 54 27-21-6 60 26
Who to root for
It’s very easy tonight as there is only one game in the NHL and it features our beloved Blueshirts at home versus Carolina. Carolina has a lot to play for with a win getting them to within one point of the last wild card slot. The Rangers won’t want to disappoint their fans after the 1994 Stanley Cup Champion team is honored in a pre-game ceremony.
Why the Rangers are lucky they aren't in the West. dark. Next
The league gets back to action with a full 14 game schedule on Saturday with 12 lottery teams playing.