With every game a virtual must win, the 5-3 loss to Dallas was devastating. With 54 points on the season, they are ten points out of the playoffs on February 4, almost too steep a hill to climb. If the threshold for making the playoffs is 95 points (the last two years it was 98), with 31 games to go, the New York Rangers have to go 20-10-1 the rest of the way. Impossible? No. Unlikely? Absolutely.
There is one glaring reason that the Blueshirts aren’t closer to a playoff position and that is their inability to get to overtime.