Rangers will have little margin for error after break for 4 Nations Face-Off
Rangers' Will Cuylle (50) celebrates with teammates after scoring during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Montreal Canadiens, in Montreal, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. Credit: AP
At about 1 a.m. on Sunday, the NHL announced that a game-tying goal scored by Will Cuylle 1:57 into the third period on Saturday night actually was going to be credited to Rangers defenseman Urho Vaakanainen.
The Rangers were about three hours into their two-week break from games for the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off, so it’s possible that Cuylle won’t hear about the scoring change until the team reconvenes for its first post-tournament practice on Feb. 18 ahead of its next game on Feb. 22 in Buffalo.
Even so, Cuylle still will be able to enjoy owning the game-winning goal. That tally came with 1:39 left in regulation and gave the Rangers a very-much-needed 4-3 victory over the Blue Jackets in Columbus, Ohio.
The Rangers (27-24-4, 58 points) moved to within three points of the Red Wings for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. It’s going to be a mad scramble to the finish. The Rangers have 27 games left in the regular season and are assured of nothing.
Columbus is one of the teams the Rangers are chasing. The Rangers were almost as jazzed about denying the Blue Jackets a point (if the game had gone to overtime) as they were about getting two points themselves.
“It’s huge,” Cuylle said Saturday. “Especially since they’re ahead of us. You know that extra point that they don’t get going into overtime is hopefully going to make a big difference going down the road.”
Beating the Blue Jackets allowed the Rangers to wash away the bad taste of losing to a non-playoff-contending team in Pittsburgh on Friday night at the Garden. The Penguins were without the injured Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and still eked out a 3-2 victory that was squarely lodged in the Rangers’ craws as they played Columbus.
Of the Pittsburgh game, coach Peter Laviolette said: “We played hard in the third period, but it was too little, too late. We couldn’t pull it out and that’s where we had been — I think I said it the game before — it’s not something you want to get used to have to count on.”
And yet the Rangers did have to count on a third-period rally as they trailed 3-2 after two on Saturday. Even though the Rangers dominated the third, outshooting Columbus 17-4, it could have been a different outcome if a couple of bounces and crossbars and posts had behaved differently in the third.
That’s how close the margin was on Saturday and probably will be for the rest of the regular season for the Rangers.
“We’ve taken steps [to improve],” Laviolette said. “There’s games that go by that you wish the result was different. There’s games that go by that you wish you played better. Then there’s been a lot of games that we’ve won, and we put ourselves back up in the mix.”
For now, all but six of the Rangers will get to enjoy the break. Adam Fox, Chris Kreider, J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck will be playing for the U.S. in the 4 Nations. Vaakanainen will represent Finland and Mika Zibanejad will suit up for Sweden. The tournament begins on Wednesday in Montreal.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
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