The New York Rangers were heading toward a colossal collapse in December as the team continued to lose game after game.
However, the Rangers have suddenly turned everything around and playoffs are on the forefront of everybody’s mind once again.
In times of disappearance, the Rangers were close to cracking, but the players knew what this team was truly capable of and that knowledge stuck with them in the back of their minds.
“I think the way things were going, it’s hard for doubt not to creep into your mind,” Ryan Lindgren said Wednesday. “I think as a group, we knew that we had a lot better and if we were able to play that way then we’d be able to get out of it. You guys all saw it, it was tough for us for a while. We knew we had the team that was able to get out of it and that’s what we’ve shown lately.”
Underneath all of the losing and outside noise, a quiet confidence still remained within the Rangers that they could get back to playing winning-caliber hockey.
“I think we all knew what we were capable of and that’s why it was so frustrating to be losing those games,” Will Cuylle said. “We have the guys in here to be a really good and competitive team so it was obviously frustrating. I think we knew we would figure it out eventually and just work through it and stick to it.”
The energy and vibes in the Rangers’ locker room seem to be much better just based on observation.
Everyone from coaches to players are more lighthearted and calm and those are important qualities to maintain in pressure-filled situations.
The Rangers still have a mountain to climb in order to get back into the playoff picture, which certainly won’t be easy.
At least now the Rangers possess the confidence needed to overcome all the obstacles that lie ahead of them.
“It was a long run, and we did some damage there,” coach Peter Laviolette emphasized. “Now it’s a journey to pushing to be in the playoffs. We still have a tremendous amount of work to do. There’s a lot of good hockey that we still need to play in order to keep going. There’s so many teams that are in that mix, it makes it hard to gain points and get back out of that hole that we dug.”
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