Rangers grind out win over Canucks to end three-game skid, keep playoff hopes alive

At this point of the season, and considering where they’re at, the Rangers aren’t getting caught up in how the wins come. 

All that matters is that they do. 

After a bleak week for their playoff odds, which dropped following losses in seven of their previous nine games, the Blueshirts snapped a three-game losing skid Saturday afternoon and moved back onto the cusp of the postseason picture with an empty-net-abetted 5-3 win over the Canucks at Madison Square Garden. 

Even with the Canadiens and Islanders losing later in the day (but both have two games in hand), the Rangers were still in desperate need of any sort of victory. 

“It was kind of a mixed bag,” said J.T. Miller, who earned a primary assist and scored an empty-net goal in his first game against his former team of six years. “They probably outplayed us for most of the game today, but we stuck with it. I thought our best period was in the third period. You definitely don’t want to give up that many after you give up the lead, what, three times? We’ll take the points this time of year though.” 

This wasn’t exactly the most convincing performance from the Rangers, who were capped at way less than 10 shots in each period for the second time in the past three games. Their past few efforts had been heavily questioned, but they went goal-for-goal with Vancouver over the final 20 minutes to go into their final three-game road trip on a high note.