The New York Rangers refuse to lose for Hughes. Beating the Carolina Hurricanes did nothing for their lottery hopes, but did a lot for their self esteem. Whether self esteem will be worth anything when they draw the ping pong balls in June remains to be seen.
Carolina and Buffalo both lost on Tuesday night. These are two teams desperate for wins as they chase Pittsburgh, Montreal and Columbus for the last wild card spot in the East. Perennial disappointments, their inability to win some of the biggest games of their season can only be disheartening.
The lottery look
With their win, the Rangers now have 60 points and with the two points they gained, they played leap frog with Colorado, Chicago and Vancouver, moving from eighth worst to 11th in the lottery race. Let’s not even think about the fact that if they were in the West, they would have the same number of points as the final wild card team.
In some good news, Florida beat the Sabres 4-2 so they stayed ahead of the Rangers in the standings. Other teams keeping pace were the Anaheim Ducks who won 4-0 over the Wild and Arizona who had s 3-2 shootout win over the Oilers. Arizona remains one point worse than the Rangers. Edmonton continues its poor play, but the single point they gained for the shootout keeps them six points behind New York.
Lottery losers included the Devils losing to Pittsburgh 4-3 and the Flyers who lost to Tampa 5-2. As mentioned earlier, Buffalo lost to Florida and find themselves only three points better than the Rangers and six points out of the wild card. If they don’t get some wins fast, they will need to make a tough decision about whether to hold on to Jeff Skinner, a pending UFA.
The standings (Worst is first)
Teams GP W-L-OTL PTS ROW
1. Ottawa 59 22-32-5 49 22
2. Los Angeles 59 23-30-6 52 21
3. Edmonton 59 24-29-6 54 21
4. Detroit 60 23-29-8 54 21
5. New Jersey 60 23-29-8 54 22
6. Anaheim 60 24-27-9 57 21
7. Arizona 60 27-28-5 59 24
8. Colorado 59 24-24-11 59 24
9. Vancouver 60 26-27-7 59 23
10. Chicago 60 25-26-9 59 24
11. Rangers 59 26-25-8 60 20
12. Florida 58 26-24-8 60 23
13. Philadelphia 60 28-25-7 63 26
14. Buffalo 59 28-24-7 63 24
15. Carolina 59 31-22-6 68 30
Second East Wild Card Cut Line: 69 points
Second West Wild Card Cut Line: 60 points
Who to root for
Four games on the NHL schedule. The Rangers are idle and will be watching the scoreboard for the result of two key games.
Blackhawks @ Detroit – With a win, Chicago not only passes the Rangers in the lottery standings, but they could put themselves in a playoff spot. Detroit winning wouldn’t hurt either, so let’s hope for overtime.
Jets @ Avalanche – Colorado is in a similar situation to Chicago. A win would give them 61 points and a potential playoff berth. It would also put them ahead of the Rangers. Root for the Avs.
The Rangers are back in action on Thursday, meeting Minnesota for the first time this season. It’s a pretty full schedule with 11 games involving 11 lottery teams.