So the Rangers had 10 days of R and R before getting back onto the ice Friday for the first of four days of practice that will lead up to Tuesday’s resumption of hostilities with the Bruins at the Garden. 

“Our schedule probably couldn’t be any better,” center Ryan Strome said. “We got a mental and physical break, which is huge. I think just refresh for the final stretch here and get a few practice days to get back into it and ramp it up a little bit day-by-day which is nice rather than having to hit the ground running.” 

The Rangers appeared somewhat spent approaching the break, even while winning four of their final six games, which culminated with a 5-2 victory over the Panthers on Feb. 1. That win sent them into the recess with exceptionally good tastes in their 30-13-4 mouths. 

“I tried to get away and focus on whatever else besides [hockey]” Jacob Trouba said. “Now you’re back here and you turn the page back to hockey, but it definitely was good to get a mental break. As much as the physical, mental is more important for me. I think the mental break is probably good for a lot of guys.” 

Head coach Gerard Gallant was at home on Prince Edward Island, spending time with his grandchildren during the break. His mind was also trained elsewhere. 

“It was great, awesome,” Gallant said. “It’s a good break, and like I said before, we had played the most games in the league at the time, we had a lot of road games and the team was getting tired. They needed a break, I needed a break, the coaches needed a break. “I didn’t think very much about hockey. I drove back from PEI [Thursday] with [assistant coach] Jim Midgley and we had 12 hours to talk about hockey, so that was enough. The best part of it is that everybody relaxed, everybody is back now and feeling good, nobody got hurt skiing or doing something stupid like that. So now we get these four days to get ready for Boston.” 

This first day was dedicated to conditioning and allowing the players to reacclimate themselves to life at the rink rather than jumping right into tactics. 

“We don’t want them to pull groins, or getting hurt after eight or nine days off. So we were just trying to get them into a little bit of a flow,” Gallant said. “We’ll start putting our lines and our practices together [Saturday], the last two practices we’ll probably get into some power-play stuff, D-zone coverage and ease into it slowly. 

“I’m glad we have four days to get ready after this much time off. Today was a fun day, they worked hard out there, they skated hard, but there was no contact. We’ll build up to it.” 

While Kaapo Kakko will remain on injured reserve for an extended period with an upper-body injury, the other three Rangers who were sidelined entering the break were on the ice Friday and presumably should be good to go on Tuesday against the Bruins. 

That includes Adam Fox, who missed three games with an upper-body issue after being checked into the glass in Columbus on Jan. 27; Filip Chytil, sidelined for five games with a lower-body issue he sustained against Arizona on Jan. 22; and Patrik Nemeth, out for five games because of a personal matter.