Rangers crush Panthers, 6-1

Conjuring an expected coda to a draining weekend of back-to-back games, the alert, energetic Rangers clobbered the Florida Panthers, 6-1, Sunday night at Madison Square Garden to follow their convincing victory at Buffalo on Saturday night.

The performance gave legs to a developing Rangers story of shared success and galvanizing teamwork. Eleven different Rangers picked up points, led by Derek Stepan's two goals -- one a razzle-dazzle special -- and one assist.

"He scored a really beautiful goal," Marian Gaborik said. "And a lot of guys contributed tonight. There's a confidence around the room. It's nice. Our schedule is getting really tough right now, so it's good that we bounce back."

The Rangers (17-6-4) have won 14 of their last 18 games, and things are going so well that John Tortorella appears to be fixing things that aren't even broken.

In an attempt to spread playing time throughout his roster, Tortorella scratched Sean Avery to give Erik Christensen his first action in nine games. Right on cue, Christensen produced the assist on what proved to be the winning goal by Artem Anisimov at 17:27 of the first period. It was Christensen's first point since Nov. 5, 15 games ago.

Tortorella described the lineup decision as a tricky balancing act. "It's a hard thing to do," he said. "A coach takes you out of the lineup and says you've leveled off when he's giving you four, five minutes; it's difficult for a player and I understand that.

"But when you play a 60-minute hockey game and you're 40 minutes into it and it's a 2-1 game, I've got to make decisions as far as who's going to help us win that game. I want Erik to be part of that."

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The Anisimov goal was the Rangers' second power-play score; Brad Richards had gotten things rolling by lighting the lamp at 11:40 of the first after taking a cross-ice pass from Ryan Callahan and pump-faking Florida goalie Jose Theodore.

Florida's quick answer, Erik Gudbranson's blue-line blast 30 seconds later, proved to be the visitors' only threat. Especially after Stepan came up with his crackerjack move at 5:45 of the second. With Florida finishing off a power play, Stepan knocked down a pass in front of his own goal, set sail along the right boards at full throttle, stickhandled around Gudbranson in the right circle and beat Theodore with a high shot.

Technically, it was an even-strength goal, finished two seconds after Brandon Prust was freed from the box for high-sticking. But Stepan, unassisted, had beaten Florida (16-9-5) single-handedly, and his strike unleashed a voracious Rangers dominance.

Swift wing Carl Hagelin mimicked Stepan's rush minutes later and, though flattened against the end boards, created the possession that led to defenseman Steve Eminger's score at 10:43. Six minutes of Rangers pressure later, Gaborik got his 15th goal when he pounced on a loose puck on Theodore's doorstep.

Stepan made it 6-1 with his second goal -- and seventh this season -- at 17:48 of the second by knocking in a long rebound of Michael Del Zotto's shot.

"It's tough to say" how good this team is, Del Zotto said. "But we're a pretty good team; you can see. We just don't want to get ahead of ourselves."

At Sunday night's speed, they're getting ahead, period.