About an hour after the Rangers left the practice ice yesterday, a loud thud and a couple of grunts could be heard outside their locker room.
The commotion came from Eric Lindros, who was tangled up with Reg Grant, the strength and conditioning coach. They were play-wrestling, Greco-Roman style. Both were laughing but wanted to win. Lindros eventually did.
It was a carryover from the spirited practice Glen Sather put the Rangers through a short while earlier. There was checking, defense suicide sprints, and a sense of purpose. The Blueshirts were not merely walking through the drills. It looked as if they wanted to expel whatever was left of Monday’s 5-0 loss to Calgary and prepare for arguably their most important stretch of their season.
“We know how important this stretch is,” Matthew Barnaby said. “Guys are getting into that game attitude. We obviously didn’t play well our last game and guys take that to heart. The intensity was up a little bit.”
The Rangers’ upcoming four games could be defined as must-wins, or at least must-ties. They face Carolina (36 points), Tampa Bay (39) and the Islanders (42) twice. The Rangers (40) sit as the ninth seed, one spot (two points) away from a playoff berth if the season ended today.
“We can’t afford to lose many games, if any at all,” Tom Poti said.
“They’re all against our conference opponents and every game is not two points, it’s four points. If we can get two and keep two off the board for another team, that would be huge. We can really make a name for ourselves and it’ll get us up in the standings so we don’t have to fight too hard and battle at the end of the season, which is what happened the last few years here.”
The Rangers play at Carolina tonight, face the Islanders in a Coliseum matinee Saturday and again Tuesday at the Garden, with the Lightning sandwiched in on Sunday.
* Jussi Markkanen (flu) missed practice again yesterday but flew with the team and will dress for tonight’s game . . . Joel Bouchard (hamstring) and Dan LaCouture (concussion) both missed practice yesterday and did not make the trip.
