Rangers-Sens: Ottawa Seeks To Spoil New York's Stretch Run

The NHL, like America, is all about hope and change these days. The New York Rangers hope the changes on their team lead them to a win over the Ottawa Senators on Sunday night at Madison Square Garden.

It's March Madness in the world of basketball, and in hockey, it's a crazy time when the standings change daily as teams battle for playoff spots down the stretch run.

New York Rangers fans are full of hope since changes in the team at the start of March turned their team around. After sitting in first place in their division, they went on a long skid that took them out of the top eight heading for the playoffs.

This weekend, with wins over the Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators, the Rangers could jump over the Carolina Hurricane and go from seventh into a tie for fifth with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

However, the Penguins play the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday at noon. A win for the Penguins would move them into a tie for fourth with the Flyers. But don't forget the Flyers have three games in hand over the Penguins. The Rangers have two.

I wouldn't call the Ottawa Senators 'hopeless,' but it looks like they are out of the playoff race. They are 30-30-10 and just lost a game to the cellar dwellers called the New York Islanders.

It's not mathematically impossible for the Senators to sneak in to the playoffs, but it would take something like a miracle for them to win the rest of their games and the Montreal Canadiens, Carolina Hurricanes, or New York Rangers to lose theirs, and that's not going to happen.

The Senators sit in 12th place in the Eastern Conference with 70 points, 11 behind the Montreal Canadiens for the eighth and final playoff spot. Even so, Ottawa is playing some great hockey, winning eight of their last nine games.

Their top line of Jason Spezza, Daniel Alfredsson and Dany Heatley has been hot in those nine games.

The New York Rangers, 37-26-8, were hoping to win both their weekend games, and extend their winning streak to four games, playing Buffalo on Saturday and Ottawa on Sunday.

The Rangers have changed their game plan, going on the attack, the way the NHL likes teams to play these days. The NHL and the Rangers have evolved and they are hoping Sean Avery has, too.

Rangers fans have embraced the new and improved Avery but skeptics and critics are still waiting for him to explode. So far, since returning to the NHL with the Rangers, he has exploded with goals, scoring four in three games.

"Avery received "treatment" for anger management and, it appears so far, some type of sensitivity training on how to fit in with his teammates," Buddy Oakes reported recently, writing for Inside Sports on FOX TV.

The article, called The Rebranding Of Sean Avery, ended ominously: "But despite being a key contributor and a model citizen right now, questions remain. Has Sean Avery been "cured" of the problems that have plagued his career both on and off the ice, or is he a ticking time bomb waiting to explode at an inopportune time?"

For a few months, while he was out of the NHL, it looked like Avery might follow Ottawa Senators goalie Ray Emery to Siberia and play in the KHL.