The New York Rangers are back

Are the New York Rangers back?

After a horrendous start that led to the trading of captain Jacob Trouba and former No. 2 overall pick Kaapo Kakko, the Rangers have climbed out of their pit of despair and are now within two points of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discuss New York’s improved play and what’s the reason behind their rise in the standings.

Tyler Yaremchuk: The Rangers are back in a bit of a New York groove, here. They have points in nine straight with wins coming over New Jersey, Columbus and Ottawa. They’re beating teams that are close to them in the standings, and even on their off nights, they’re finding ways to milk out a point in overtime or in a shootout.

Frank, are the New York Rangers back?

Frank Seravalli: They are for me. I want to rewind a few weeks back in our podcast with Jason Gregor, did he or did he not declare the Rangers dead?

Tyler Yaremchuk: He did.

Frank Seravalli: At some point, a lot of people did. I’m not tooting my own horn, because I’m not saying they’re going to make the playoffs, but I think they’ve got as good a chance as anyone.

They’re 6-0-3 in their last nine games, but it’s also the back-to-back shutouts for Igor Shesterkin that stands out to me. I mean, if you go back to the incredible run of poor play that they had, it was a stretch that Shesterkin had never seen in his career. It had just happened to come right on the edge of him signing an extension that makes him the highest-paid goalie in league history.

It’s a lot to unpack, and there’s certainly some off-ice drama that went with it, but so much of that was just poor goaltending. Enough that in typical years, it gets coaches fired and players traded. Yes, the team made some moves, but this team was way more talented than some of the teams around them.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…