A little less than two months ago on Thanksgiving Eve, the Rangers were preparing to host the Canadiens at the Garden as the top team in the NHL, tied in points with their opponent that evening, as well as Dallas, but holding a game in hand on both.
They were on top of the hockey world 21 games into the season, about seven-and-a-half months after clinching last season’s Presidents’ Trophy, finding ways to win games even when they weren’t playing sound hockey.
The Rangers lost 5-1 to Montreal that night, a defeat which marked the beginning of a seismic shift for a team that has slowly and steadily fallen toward the middle of the pack of an Eastern Conference, in which six points separates third place from 13th.