You all know that Friday means it's "Ask The Maven" time. Today's question comes from Peter Pelton of Westchester. Take it away, Pete:
WITH THE WILD CARD RACE SO TIGHT, HOW DOES THE SCHEDULE FAVOR OR NOT FAVOR THE RANGERS CHANCES?
The Maven replies: If you take a cursory look at the Blueshirt games ahead, they next play Vancouver at home tomorrow. Ordinarily that would appear to be a two-pointer for New York but the fact is there's no "Home Ice Advantage" anymore.
The Blueshirts then go on the road for games against the Kings, Anaheim and San Jose. L.A. is the only strong club of the three. Realistically, New York should take two out of three.
In other seasons, the Rangers have been a good road team. Frankly, they still could rally and make the playoffs but this team is too hard to figure out.
After meeting the Sharks the Rangers return home to play Minnesota. After that they finish their schedule with three home and four away games with three of the last four on the road.
Put it this way, the Rangers have not been good to themselves this season, both home and away.
The good news is that the Blueshirts are right in the middle of the Wild Card pack. They could surprise and make their road games their key to the playoffs.