New Look Rangers' Final Push, What To Expect?

If you asked a Rangers fan how they thought the playoff scenario would look with 10 games remaining, they probably wouldn't have said anything resembling the current Eastern Conference race.

This has been a "Jekyll and Hyde" season for the Rangers. They started off looking like a first place team, then looked like a group of incoherent peewee players. Currently they are somewhere in between, and despite all their ups and downs, have been successful...so far.

The Aaron Voros explosion came and went, Tom Renney's job went, John Tortorella came in and Sean Avery went...then came back.

The expectations on the Rangers at the start of the season were "third round or further". Anything less would have been considered a failure. As the season went abruptly downhill, the realistic expectation was that they were either a first round team, or a team who would completely miss the playoffs all together.

I personally thought the season was over. I was looking at the Rangers contracts, and who they could get rid of first over the summer. There was also speculation as to whether the current players could do better under a more offensive system.

Had Ryan Callahan, Brandon Dubinsky, and company reached their peak?

When John Tortorella was hired, that question was answered quickly. The answer was "no", they hadn't reached their peak.

Sam Rosen's catchphrase "IT'S A POWERPLAY GOAL!" has been resurrected. The players have learned to take one-timers, and have had shot totals near 40 several times since Tortorella took over.

The new expectation on the Rangers is that no one knows what to expect. They're just playing hockey, and the fans are left not knowing exactly what their team is capable of. It's certainly been fun to watch at least.

As of this moment the Rangers are in a dead heat in an extremely tight conference. The Rangers are in sixth place with 82 points. The fourth seed has 84 points and the ninth seed has 78 points.

Six points separate home-ice advantage from golf, in April.

Either way, this final set of games will yield an accurate assessment of which players work under the new system. Who can stay, and who can go, that's what should be revealed in the last part of the season.

Hopefully that's a decision that wont have to be made until mid-June, after 16 playoff victories. It's an optimistic thought, but isn't that what we're all here for?