NEW YORK — When the puck dropped Friday night in their regular-season finale, against the Washington Capitals at Madison Square Garden, the New York Rangers didn’t know whether the game would be a preview of their first-round playoff matchup or not.
It will not be.
In order for that to have happened, fading, battered Washington, playing without Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, would have needed to beat the Rangers, while the Pittsburgh Penguins lost at home to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
