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With 18 games on the road, seven sets of back-to-back contests and three separate trips across the Canadian border, the Rangers’ first 30 games of the season were a grind.
Although it was taxing, the 19-7-4 Blueshirts enter the four-day holiday recess in playoff position at third in the Metropolitan Division, behind the first-place Hurricanes and the Capitals. The Rangers’ 42 points are also tied with the Maple Leafs for fourth in the NHL, trailing Carolina and Washington again — in addition to the reigning two-time Stanley Cup champions Lightning, who lead the league with 44.
Before tackling the final 52 games of the season, Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant wants his team to make the most of this time away from the ice.
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“I think if you talk to the players, if you talk to anybody, there’s a good [four-day] break here, forget about everything,” he said on Tuesday after the final practice before the holiday. “Go do what you have to do, stay safe, stay healthy. They’re not thinking about hockey. Just go home and relax with their family and do what they’re allowed to do.
“I don’t want guys thinking about our first 30 games or our next 50. Go home and get away from hockey for four or five days. Then we come back on the 26th and start to get ready all over again.”
Considering goalie Igor Shesterkin and winger Artemi Panarin were full participants in practice recently, the Rangers are nearly back at full strength. Defenseman Patrik Nemeth, who is still in COVID-19 protocol, would’ve been the only player unavailable for the Rangers’ matchup with the Canadiens on Wednesday had it gone on as planned.
Still, the Rangers are seemingly looking forward to this time off in order to get 100 percent healthy.
“We’ve had a pretty hectic road schedule,” Chris Kreider said. “Obviously, team’s a little bit banged up, a little sick and tired. A little sick and tired of being sick and tired. So good few days to get healthy and kind of hit the reset button.”
The Rangers can’t forget what brought on this earlier-than-planned holiday break. As part of the NHL’s enhanced COVID-19 measures, players have been urged to limit their interactions with the community as much as possible during the holidays.
The league is strongly recommending that players refrain from indoor dining or participating in holiday gatherings with different households. Additionally, club-organized holiday parties are not permitted. Players and other team personnel will have to register a negative COVID-19 test when clubs are allowed to return to their respective facilities on Sunday.
“That’s been in the back of our minds since this whole thing started,” Kreider said. “So it’s just something we live with and everyone lives with at this point.”
Gallant agreed that, in a way, it’ll likely feel like the start of a new season on Sunday when the Rangers return to the MSG Training Center in Tarrytown for practice. He then knocked on the table as if not to jinx it.
Even though the team realizes it’s now all about the next 52 games, Gallant wants the Rangers to take it one game at a time. He added that he was happy with where the Rangers are in the standings, and the team certainly feels the same way.
“We’ve put ourselves in a decent spot 30 games in,” Kreider said. “This is where we want to be, we want to be in the hunt. But it’s something that we’ve emphasized over the beginning of the year, just taking it one day at a time and continue to try to improve and get better. Our game, right now, compared to what it was 10 games and 20 games in, I think that’s the most exciting thing is that we’ve shown signs of improvement over those stretches.
“That’s ultimately the most important thing over an 82-game season. It’s that balancing act between finding ways to win games and also steadily improving.”
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