The New York Rangers take on the Buffalo Sabres for two games at Madison Square Garden as their season winds down. With only eight games left, the Blueshirts are still in the playoff hunt, as impossible as that may seem.
If the Rangers sweep the two games over the Sabres and the Islanders lose to the Capitals on Tuesday, the Blueshirts will have 58 points and the Isles will have 63 points going into their head-to-head meetings on Thursday and Saturday night.
Yes kids, if the Rangers win their next four and the Islanders drop their next three, they will wake up on Sunday morning one point behind the Islanders with four games left in the season. Stranger things have happened.
Here’s the bad news. The Rangers play Washington and Boston twice each in their last four games while the Isles meet the Sabres and Devils twice each and their only tough game is their season-ender with the Bruins. Yup, the schedule is definitely in the Islanders’ favor, but as we said, stranger things have happened.
So, with our playoff fantasies out of the way, time to get to the game tonight.