{"id":1427321,"date":"2022-04-10T07:29:57","date_gmt":"2022-04-10T11:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1427321"},"modified":"2022-04-10T07:30:11","modified_gmt":"2022-04-10T11:30:11","slug":"rangers-about-to-clinch-playoff-berth-after-five-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rangers-about-to-clinch-playoff-berth-after-five-seasons\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers About to Clinch Playoff Berth After Five Seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frangers-about-to-clinch-playoff-berth-after-five-seasons%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1427321&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Five years after they last qualified for the postseason, the Rangers will be back among the teams looking to hoist the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n<p>It might happen as soon as Saturday night at the Garden if the Rangers can knock off the visiting Senators. If not Saturday, coach Gerard Gallant\u2019s surprising team inevitably will punch its ticket back into the 16-team tournament.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery year when you play you aim for the playoffs, you aim to win. Definitely a better feeling than it has been,\u201d said alternate captain Mika Zibanejad, one of the longest-tenured Rangers. \u201cIt\u2019s been worth the wait and it\u2019s been fun to be here even though there\u2019s been a couple of tough years or however you want to call them. It\u2019s a fun thing to be part of the solution, and just to be here now, it\u2019s obviously a better feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Much has changed since the last time the Rangers were in this position. Much has had to go right this season for it to happen, from the development of key young players to the good fortune in the draft lottery to the gutsy moves to install Chris Drury as general manager and Gallant behind the bench. It has led to this point, with a tough-minded yet still-young group that has far surpassed the low expectations with which it entered the season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI read lots of things where we would be back in October and we\u2019re not there,\u201d Gallant said with a wry smile. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a good start, we\u2019ve had a good first 72 games. I\u2019m happy where we\u2019re at, but you can never be satisfied because things change in a minute.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/10\/Panarin.Zibaejad.jpg\"><\/a><figcaption>Artemi Panarin (left) will be on the same line as Mika Zibanejad for their next game against the Predators.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignright\">\n\t<\/aside>\n<p>On Friday, Gallant made sure to credit those who came before him, and point out that he felt this team\u2019s arrow was pointing upward before his arrival. Drury\u2019s predecessors, Jeff Gorton and John Davidson, rebuilt an aging roster. They brought in, among others, Adam Fox, Jacob Trouba, Kaapo Kakko, Alexis Lafreniere, Artemi Panarin, Ryan Lindgren and Ryan Strome. Last year\u2019s team, coached by David Quinn, only missed the playoffs by four points.<\/p>\n<p>Drury clearly found the right coach in the 58-year-old Gallant, and he has made significant moves to bolster this group, adding significant depth up front and on the blue line at the trade deadline.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I got to this team, I knew there [were] a few little holes to take care of, but they were on their way up. Years before that, they had some good young players, and they had to take another step, and that\u2019s what we talked about [before the season],\u201d Gallant said. \u201cThey were on their way up, and they took another step again this year, just like they\u2019re probably going to do again next year. They\u2019re young kids, we\u2019re still a young team. They took a step and it\u2019s going in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There aren\u2019t any big celebrations planned. Gallant laughed when he was asked if he would pop any champagne when that elusive playoff spot is clinched. He isn\u2019t going to coach the next 10 games any differently than he has the first 72, and his players aren\u2019t going to play any differently, either. First place remains attainable. The Rangers trailed the Hurricanes by two points entering Friday and are 7-2-1 in their last 10 games. Reaching the postseason was just the first goal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy expectation was to make the playoffs,\u201d Gallant said. \u201cI\u2019ll be happy, but I\u2019ll celebrate at the end of June, hopefully. That\u2019s when you want to celebrate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Five years after they last qualified for the postseason, the Rangers will be back among the teams looking to hoist the Stanley Cup. It might happen as soon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":489,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1427321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1427321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1427321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1427321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1427321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}