Rangers already look playoff ready
NY Post
This was their sixth game in nine days since the trade deadline. It’s been a playoff-type schedule, even more grueling with two sets of back-of-backs within seven days.
And the Rangers responded as they have just about all season with Sunday’s dominant 5-2 victory over the allegedly desperate Islanders for their fifth victory in those six contests that lifted them to within one point of the first-overall Bruins.
The Blueshirts worked the walls. They won their one-on-ones. They were relentless below the hash marks — cycling, going low-high and high-low within possessions to create open ice while establishing a substantial territorial advantage. Indeed, the Rangers imposed their will on the Islanders while demonstrating a playoff-style approach.
“We are thinking and we are playing the way we want to in the playoffs,” Artemi Panarin told The Post after notching his 94th point on an assist setting up Alexis Lafreniere. “That’s right now, because you can’t just change at the last second.
“But we have to focus on the regular season too. We have to finish the job and not get ahead of ourselves. We still have work to do.”
The Rangers opened the season on an 18-4-1 tear and are now in the midst of a 16-3-1 surge. They have received superior netminding from both Igor Shesterkin, who faced 27 shots in this one, and Jonathan Quick. And they are getting contributions straight down the lineup after a pair of holes up front were filled with deadline acquisitions Alex Wennberg and Jack Roslovic.
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