Home Ice For Playoffs and Fourth Place Finish Predicted for New York Rangers

Stan Fischler, writing for the newyorkrangers.com, may be a bit biased but he predicted the New York Rangers will finish in fourth place and win home ice advantage for the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Fischler made the prediction after the Rangers beat the Minnesota Wild 2-1 and moved up to tie  the Pittsburgh Penguins for sixth place with 86 points.

It is estimated that 90 points will clinch a playoff spot. Two more wins will give the Rangers their magic number.

For their final eight games, the Rangers play the Atlanta Thrashers in Atlanta, the Penguins in Pittsburgh, the New Jersey Devils in Madison Square Garden, the Carolina Hurricane and the Boston Bruins in their own arenas, the Canadiens and end with a home and home series with the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Rangers recently recorded wins over  the Bruins, Canadiens, and the Flyers. They  currently have an identical record to the Penguins.

The Thrashers are in 27th place, or fourth from the bottom, in the NHL. 

The Devils are ahead of the Rangers in the  standings and they beat the Rangers  3-0 the last time they met.

However, the Rangers  have transformed since then, adding coach John Tortorella, trading for Nik Antropov and Derek Morris, and seeing the return of Sean Avery, who was Martin Brodeur's nemesis in the playoffs last year when the NHL got The Avery Rule.

That means the Rangers could win the rest of their games this season. Eight victories would mean 16 more points, for a total of 102.

The Penguins would have to win all of their remaining games, too, to finish in a tie with the Rangers.

To finish ahead of the Penguins, the Rangers need to win one more game them then between now and the end of the regular season.

The Hurricanes are ahead of the Rangers by just one point but they only have seven more games to play. One win more than Carolina in the next three weeks would move the Rangers up into fifth place.

To climb into fourth place, as Fischler predicted, the Rangers would have to catch the Flyers, who are two wins ahead of them and have two more games to play than the Rangers. 

To get ahead of the Flyers, the Rangers would have to win three more games than Philly.  If the Flyers win half of their remaining games and the Rangers win all of theirs, Fischler would be right and the team he likes to call the Broadway Blueshirts would open the first round of the playoffs at home in Madison Square Garden.