It might not have been the prettiest win and it didn’t come against a good team, but the New York Rangers will gladly take Sunday’s 4-3 shootout win against the Calgary Flames.
They came into tonight’s contest having lost the first four games of what was increasingly looking like a depressing nine-game homestand. With four more games left, the outlook is at least a little rosier.
Calgary took 2-0 and 3-2 leads, but the Rangers battled back to win. The Blueshirts now find themselves more or less in the thick of things in the squalid East despite being below .500 (16-17-1).
Henrik Lundqvist might feel the greatest relief of any Rangers player, as he broke a four-game losing streak. Sure, he still didn’t put up great numbers (three goals allowed on 21 shots) and hasn’t been sharp statistically (just one game with a save percentage above .900 in his last seven), but this is better than nothing.
That might just be the motto of tonight’s win, as the Rangers have become uncomfortably used to settling for exactly that.