New York Rangers

Game 81: OTT 3 NYR 1, Playoffs can't get here soon enough
April 9, 2017, 5:30 AM ET [80 Comments]
Jan Levine
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The Rangers continued to sit regulars and play out the string Saturday. In their penultimate game of the season, New York fell 3-1 in a contest in which the Rangers didn't score until 45 seconds remained. The Rangers did little throughout the game, making to hard to get any read on the team heading to the post-season.

Coach Alain Vigneault has chosen to sit several players each of the past several games. Against the Senators, Rick Nash, Mats Zuccarello and Jesper Fast all sat again with what's been tageed as "bumps and bruises." They were joined in the press box by Derek Stepan. On the blue line, Ryan McDonagh sat for the fourth straight game and he was joined by Marc Staal and Nick Holden (second straight game). Brady Skjei, who sat Thursday, was back in the lineup while call up Taylor Beck saw his first action of the season.

It's impossible to glean much of anything from these games with so many regulars out. I get resting players, but New York limped down the stretch losing five of their last six and the concern has to be if it will take them a while to regain the chemistry they might have had before all these scratches. In addition, the depth players haven't shown much at all in these games. But if New York enters the players healthy and ready, especially McD, it will be more than worth it. The Blueshirts have been locked into a playoff spot and match up for a while now, so the edge had been taken off the season since early-March. After Sunday, it's time to go from 0 back to 100.

One extremely positive aspect has been the play of Henrik Lundqvist, despite the B lineup around him, Hank has been sharp. The rust that might have existed due to his absence from the hip injury should all be scraped off by now. Lundqvist, who made 26 of his 30 saves, several of them spectacular as his D was missing in action, the last two period Saturday, gets Sunday against Pittsburgh off for Antti Raanta but will be ready to go against Montreal and Carey Price. It was nice to see Mika Zibanejad score in his return to Ottawa, even though all it did was cost Craig Anderson a shut out. Zib has three goals and four assists his last eight games. In addition, the penalty kill went 3-for-3. which was nice with Nash, Stepan, Fast and McD on the sidelines.

One regular season game left, then the real season begins.