Well, well, well. Idle Rangers get some help...

 Maybe your Blueshirts shouldn't even play the remaining six games and let their competitors for the final playoff spots in the East hiss it away...

While a few of us writer types were dining on sushi here in Tampa this evening, the Flyers, Bruins and Thrashers lost in regulation, gained zero points and the door cracked a inch wider for the Rangers.

The standings: Rangers in 10th, with 78; Thrashers in 9th with 80, Bruins in eighth with 82, Flyers and Montreal with 82. But the Rangers now have two games in hand on Atlanta and one on the rest of dem pretenders.

The Flyers play Montreal tomorrow as the Blueshirts face the Lightning and this two-game trip, with Florida in Sunrise on Saturday, looms even larger. We'll be here to bring it all to you, starting tomorrow at the morning skate, through the game and post game, and then against the Panthers, in newsday, on newsday.com. and twitter.com/stevezipay.  (I'll be cruising through Alligator Alley sometime in the wee hours of Saturday morning to get to Sunrise/Lauderdale...what a guy, huh? Work, work, work)

The drumbeat continues tonight on WFAN back in New York, where I'll slide in again as a guest of the Moose, Marc Malusis. When I confirm the exact time, I'll let ya know so you can tune in for the wisdom (ahem) and whimsy.