The New York Rangers have a long and tormented past with the New York Islanders and tonight’s game just adds another chapter to the history of the two teams. For those of you with long memories, this game won’t compare to the J.P. Parise goal, Ulf Nilsson’s ankle, the 1979 upset or the four straight years of being eliminated in the playoffs, but it is serving the purpose of reviving what has always been a storied rivalry.
To remind everyone of the significance of this game, let’s take a look at the standings:
Standings GP W-L-OTL PTS ROW
1- Washington 49 32-13-4 68 points 29 ROW
2- Pittsburgh 50 32-15-3 67 points 29 ROW
3- Islanders 49 29-15-5 63 points 25 ROW
4- Boston 48 28-14-6 62 points 24 ROW
5- Rangers 50 26-18-6 58 points 25 ROW
6–Philadelphia 49 22-20-7 51 points 19 ROW
7- New Jersey * 49 15-27-7 37 points 15 ROW
8- Buffalo* 50 13-30-7 33 points 10 ROW
* Eliminated from the playoffs
We’ve added the ROW tiebreaker to the chart as that may become significant.
A Rangers win will definitely pull them within three points of the Islanders and in the unlikely event that the Bruins lose to the Sabres, they will be within two points of Boston.
Games in hand are becoming important as Boston still has two additional games to play and the Islanders have one. We are not going to talk about who the Bruins and Islanders play in their remaining games as it will just depress you.
Okay, okay…the Isles play the Sabres twice, the Devils twice and Boston. Boston play twice against the Rangers, Sabres and Devils and once each against the Capitals and Islanders. Yup. there’s a lot of Devils and Sabres sprinkled in there.
All the Rangers can do is keep winning and hope for the best. Here’s the schedule for tonight:
Thursday’s games
Islanders @ Rangers
Sabres @ Bruins
Penguins @ Capitals
Flyers @ Devils