If what happened to the Rangers between Thanksgiving and Christmas was an expected dousing of cold water on tenuously held hopes of a surprising playoff run, it hardly gets any warmer on this side of the break.
The Blueshirts made things interesting for a while, with a 9-1-1 run that led into Thanksgiving showing there is promise under first-year NHL head coach David Quinn, and promise in their rising young talent (as well as remaining in 36-year-old Henrik Lundqvist). But the 3-6-4 stretch that brought them into the three-day holiday break that will end with Thursday night’s Garden match against the Blue Jackets, was not exactly a shock.