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New York Rangers: Another night in the ever shifting race for lottery position

By Steve Paulus

NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 08: New York Rangers Goalie Henrik Lundqvist (30) makes a save during the first period of the National Hockey League game between the Carolina Hurricanes and the New York Rangers on February 8, 2019 at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY. (Photo by Joshua Sarner/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 08: New York Rangers Goalie Henrik Lundqvist (30) makes a save during the first period of the National Hockey League game between the Carolina Hurricanes and the New York Rangers on February 8, 2019 at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY. (Photo by Joshua Sarner/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NY – FEBRUARY 08: Henrik Lundqvist #30 of the New York Rangers tends the net against the Carolina Hurricanes at Madison Square Garden on February 8, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – FEBRUARY 08: Henrik Lundqvist #30 of the New York Rangers tends the net against the Carolina Hurricanes at Madison Square Garden on February 8, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images) /

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.

Next. No quit in this Ranger team. dark

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.

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