Almost two weeks ago, when the Rangers were still in the thick of a rough patch, their upcoming schedule appeared even more daunting.
Staring them in the face was a two-game road trip against the Western Conference’s top team, the Golden Knights, and the defending Stanley Cup champion Avalanche. Then they would return home to face two of the top three teams in the Eastern Conference in the Devils and Maple Leafs.
Three games into the grueling stretch, it accounts for the bulk of the Rangers’ longest winning streak of the season.
Winners of four straight, the Rangers will take on another challenge Thursday night when they host the Maple Leafs, who arrive at the Garden not having lost in regulation since Nov. 11 (going 12-0-3 since).
“Real good hockey teams, hopefully they catch the best of your team,” coach Gerard Gallant said Wednesday after practice. “Sometimes you look at the schedule before the season starts and you say, ‘This is going to be a tough stretch.’ But you don’t know in the new NHL. Any team can beat you. You can beat any team if you play well. So that’s what I’m finding out.”
The Rangers know they still haven’t been playing their best hockey for 60 minutes every night, but they have started to find ways to win games instead of finding ways to lose.
“I’m happy about winning games, but I wish we were playing a little better,” Gallant said.
The Rangers’ lines at Wednesday’s practice were the same lines they finished Monday’s game with, meaning a top line of Artemi Panarin-Mika Zibanejad-Vincent Trocheck and a second line of Alexis Lafreniere-Filip Chytil-Kaapo Kakko.
Panarin and Zibanejad have played together at five-on-five for just 67:39 this season, according to Natural Stat Trick, during which the Rangers have scored two goals and allowed four. Asked whether he was curious what the talented pairing might look like on the same line for an extended period, Gallant chuckled and asked, “What’s an extended period with me?”
“We’ll see where it goes,” Gallant added. “I wouldn’t put them together if I didn’t think they were a good match.”
Vitali Kravtsov, who was skating as an extra on Wednesday, has been a healthy scratch for the last three games after playing four straight games from Nov. 30-Dec. 5. Asked whether there was a chance Kravtsov could get some action at AHL Hartford, Gallant replied, “You’re asking the wrong guy.”