NEW YORK _ Sometimes, when there really isn't much at stake, it can be hard for a team of professionals to get up for a game. And judging by the way they'd played on the road during the week, it sure looked as though the Rangers, who've known for a while now that the playoffs are out of reach, were having trouble getting themselves pumped up.
"We've slipped a little bit," Rangers coach David Quinn said at Saturday's morning skate before the Rangers' 4-2 victory over the Devils at Madison Square Garden that snapped a six-game losing streak. "I thought, right before the trade deadline, when we played the Devils, and the next four or five games after that, we played good hockey. And we were purposeful, and we had the right intentions, and there was a cohesiveness and there was _ there was a good feeling, even though we were only getting one point (in overtime losses to Washington and Tampa Bay). And I thought, starting against Dallas, and even through Detroit, we had lost that a little bit, and I think maybe the frustration level of losing kind of caught up to us a little bit."
Apparently, the Rangers still had the blahs in the opening period against the Devils, falling behind 2-0 on two goals allowed late in the period. But three straight goals, beginning with one by Ryan Strome late in the second period and ending with a second by Strome into the empty Devils net with 9.6 seconds left.
