New York Rangers hit pivotal stretch of games into and after the break

The New York Rangers are coming up on a stretch of games that will set the path for the rest of the season.

The New York Rangers are a roller coaster team to watch. When they are on they are very, very good. When they aren’t playing well, they are tough to watch. The offense isn’t consistent, they have gone years without a clear sniper to put up goals and the defense leaves too many loose pucks in front of Henrik Lundqvist. Without Chris Kreider the team doesn’t have much of a physical presence and the team is a bit of a one-note style.

With all of that, the Rangers linger on the back-end of the playoff race. After Tuesday night’s loss to the Ducks, the Rangers sit in ninth place, on the outside looking in. They are only two points behind the Wild Card leaders but the Islanders sit right with them in ninth place. With 53 points, the Rangers only sit three points Philadelphia and New Jersey for second place in the Metropolitan division. Needless to say, it’s a tight race.

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The trade deadline is February 26th. Will the Blueshirts be buyers or sellers? There are rumors out there that players like Mats Zuccharello and Rick Nash are on the trading block. Are the Rangers prepping to be sellers?

Right now, the team is on the edge of going either way. A good stretch might convert them to buyers and if they lose some more they become sellers. Which way is it going to go?

The next month of games is going to make this decision rather decisively. The Rangers are about to pay the price for having a lot of early home games in New York. Starting from Thursday night in San Jose and going through March 10th, the Rangers have a stretch of twenty games. 13 of those contests will take place outside of MSG.

As of now, the Rangers road record sits at 7-12-2. To contrast, the home record is 17-8-3.

Next: Rick Nash starting to heat up for the Rangers

In order to get this done, they are going to need a month of actually cohesive hockey. When they score they can’t play defense, and vice versa these days. They cannot continue to leave the games up to Lundqvist. Eventually he will crack. The team must support him. If they click on all cylinders anything is possible. If they don’t, the Rangers will be sellers, and that may include the coach come the end of the year.