Rangers Continue Their Playoff Push Against Isles

This season has been full of ups, downs, in-betweens, disappointment, free agent busts, trades, injuries, and more this season for the Rangers. But with all that's happened, they find themselves in great position to make the playoffs.

The Rangers face off at the Garden against their rivals from the island for the 5th time on Monday, and desperately need to win. The Islanders currently sit in 7th place in the Eastern Conference, with 75 points. The Rangers sit in 11th with 69 points, but seem to be likely to at least have an easy time getting up to 9th place by the end of this week.

Montreal, who currently sit in 9th place, are 5-11-1 since February 1st, and have played 3 less games left than the Rangers.

Toronto has been playing much better than Montreal, but have lost to key opponents like the Canadiens, Bruins, and Islanders during their stretch run during February and March. They have played one more game than the Rangers.

Carolina is in the 8th and final playoff spot, but has lost 3 of their last 4, and the Rangers play them next Sunday afternoon at home in an opportunity to gain 2 points on them. The Hurricanes have played 2 more games than the Rangers at this point in the season.

But it all starts Monday at the Garden for the Rangers. They've yet to win against the Islanders this season, and will find the Islanders to be a very difficult opponent to beat, as they've been playing very good hockey and made some solid moves at the trading deadline that included acquiring Ryan Smyth from Edmonton for 2 former 1st round draft picks and a future 1st rounder. The future is clearly now for the Islanders and they're playing like it. The game Monday will be the latest installment in this intense battle, and is huge for both teams.
With this game being the only game scheduled throughout the NHL on Monday, both teams have the chance to gain 2 points on all the teams they're trying to jump over and/or put some distance between.

It's key for the Rangers to go in and play a very solid first period to get the crowd behind them. There should be a fair share of Islander fans that make the trip into the city to see the game, but majority of the MSG crowd should be Rangers fans. Yours truly will be one of those Rangers fans. The fans have grown impatient quickly with the Rangers this season, whether it's the lack of shots on the power play, Marek Malik making a mistake once every 20 games, or having the puck bounce the wrong way on them. Or the times when it's actually warranted.

But regardless of whether or not the Rangers deserve some of the boos they've gotten this season, they need to go out and play with lots of energy. Hopefully we'll see a lot of ice time for players like Sean Avery, Ryan Hollweg, Blair Betts, Colton Orr, and Jed Ortmeyer. They all play with lots of energy and never quit. Players like Jaromir Jagr and Marcel Hossa may be putting pucks in the net this season, but there's been plenty of times where they've been caught getting very lazy with their back checking and it's cost the Rangers.
Here's to hoping the Rangers can come out victorious, although it may make for a much less interesting blog post Tuesday morning.