State of the Rangers: Where they stand as the new calendar year approaches

WASHINGTON – The Rangers wrap up their pre-Christmas schedule on Tuesday night against the Washington Capitals, and with the NHL off the next three days for the Christmas break, it’s time to take stock of where Mike Sullivan’s team is, and what its prospects are heading into the next calendar year.

At this point, those prospects seem murky, at best.

Entering Tuesday, the Rangers were 18-16-4, one point below the playoff cut line. So a win, and the right results in other games, might have been enough to lift them into a wild-card spot at the break. But they’ve played more games than any other team in the East, so even if that was the case, it might be deceiving.

Of course, with still more than half the season to be played, there’s plenty of time for the Blueshirts to pick things up after the break, win some games, and secure a playoff spot. But up to this point, they haven’t shown that they have what it takes to rise above the pack. An optimist might say they’re 50-50 to get in. A realist might put their odds at a little less than that.

Naturally, the Rangers themselves tend to be more optimistic.

“We expect a bit more from ourselves and the results,’’ defenseman Braden Schneider said at Tuesday’s morning skate. “But I think, all in all, we're working toward the right direction, and we’ve just got to make sure that we keep a belief. Because I do think we believe we have a group that can do well in this room… We do have a belief in this locker room that we are a good team.’’

On Tuesday, they were without their captain, J.T. Miller, on injured reserve with an upper-body injury, and their No. 1 defenseman and top power-play point man, Adam Fox, on long-term injured reserve, also with an upper-body injury. They’ve also been dealing with some kind of virus running through their locker room, which caused them to be without Artemi Panarin for one game, and young forwards Gabe Perreault and Matt Rempe for another.

But other teams have dealt with injuries and illness too. Better teams have better depth, though, and are better able to get results even while missing good players.

Fox is expected to come off LTIR and return when the Rangers resume their schedule Saturday at UBS Arena against the Islanders. That will certainly help the power play, which should help the offense overall. In the 27 games he played, the power play scored 20.9% of the time (13-for-62) with him as the primary point man. It was 13.8% (4-for-29) without him going into Tuesday.

But the Jericho native’s return alone won’t be enough to make them a playoff team.

No, to do that, they are going to need to find a way to score more goals. Their 2.5 average goals scored per game was tied for last in the league entering Tuesday. It’s tough to win when you can’t score.

What’s kept them in the hunt to this point has been their excellent goaltending and good defense. They may not score a lot, but they don’t give up many goals, either (their 2.68 goals-allowed-per game is seventh-fewest in the league).

“I think our defensive game has been pretty solid, and that was something going into the season that we felt was an opportunity for us to build more of an identity around that,’’ Sullivan said at the skate. “I think the guys have bought into the defensive concept that we've tried to put in place here. We have two excellent goaltenders (Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick), and those guys make timely saves for us night in, and night out.’’

Sullivan, who’s in his first year coaching the team, was asked if the team is roughly where he expected it to be at this point, after having to adapt to his new systems and philosophies in training camp.

“I think that's a tough question to answer,’’ he said. “I went into this experience excited about the possibility of where this team could go, and I'm still excited about it. And so that hasn't changed. I think this first part of the season, we've learned a lot about the group, and we're trying to go through this journey together to try to become the best version of ourselves.’’

What he’s learned is that his team needs to score more. What he doesn’t know is whether the best version of his team will be enough to get into the playoffs.

Notes & quotes: Assistant coach David Quinn apparently became the latest victim of the virus that’s been going around the Rangers’ locker room. Quinn was not on the ice for the morning skate and the team later said he missed the game due to illness… Perreault and Rempe, who missed Sunday’s 2-1 loss in Nashville, returned to the lineup. Conor Sheary and Brett Berard were the scratches, along with D Urho Vaakanainen.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.