The New York Rangers and Calgary Flames share similar point totals in their bids to secure a wild-card playoff spot.
The difference is that the Flames are competing with fewer opponents while the Rangers are dealing with a massively crowded field heading into the teams’ Tuesday contest in New York.
The Rangers (33-29-6, 72 points) have 14 games remaining to avoid missing the postseason one year after winning the Presidents’ Trophy. New York currently holds the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot, but it is a precarious lead with five other teams within four points and one more club six points back.
New York is five points behind the Ottawa Senators, who have gained separation in the wild-card race by winning six straight games. The Rangers are one point ahead of the Montreal Canadiens, who have two games in hand on New York.
New York endured a 4-15-0 slide from Nov. 21-Dec. 30 and then went 8-1-3 from Jan. 2-23. Since then, the Rangers are 9-9-2 over their past 20 due to their inability to win more than two games in a row.
The latest instance was a 3-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday after the Rangers ended a three-game road trip with a 4-0 win over the Blue Jackets a night earlier. New York’s defense continued to play well, a constant since a 7-3 home loss to Columbus on March 9, but the Rangers could only muster a goal by Will Cuylle in the second period vs. Edmonton.
“I thought our energy was good despite the back-to-back, but we need wins at this time of year, especially, so there’s no moral victories but we just got to turn the page and get ready for the next one,” Cuylle said.
New York’s power play was scoreless on three chances even with defenseman Adam Fox playing his second game following an eight-game absence caused by an upper-body injury. The Rangers are 1-for-25 on the man advantage over their past eight games and 4-for-41 in their past 16 games since scoring twice against the Vegas Golden Knights on Feb. 2.
Calgary (30-25-11, 71 points) has 16 games left and sits two points behind the Vancouver Canucks and the St. Louis Blues, who are tied for the Western Conference’s second and final wild-card position. The Flames also share the same point total as Utah Hockey Club but are six points clear of the next closest team, the Anaheim Ducks.
The Flames are 6-9-4 since winning three straight from Jan. 18-25, a stretch that gave them a three-point lead over Vancouver for the second wild card.
Calgary began a four-game trip with a 6-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday. The Flames allowed three power-play goals, all in the second period, two of them by Auston Matthews. It was the 12th time this season that Calgary yielded at least five goals and they third time the team surrendered three power-play tallies.
The Flames rank 27th in the NHL on the penalty kill at 73.9 percent.
“Those are momentum-builders for us, too,” Calgary’s MacKenzie Weeger said of the Maple Leafs’ power-play tallies. “We didn’t step up to that challenge there, and that’s sort of where it got away from us.”
Meanwhile, the Flames went 0-for-4 on the power play at Toronto, leaving them 5-for-33 (15.2 percent) with the man advantage over the past 12 games.
Calgary is 7-2-1 in the previous 10 meetings with New York. The Flames peppered the Rangers with 49 shots on goal in a 3-2 home win on Nov. 21.
–Field Level Media
