In some moments Saturday, especially once their game reached overtime, the Rangers teetered on the brink of dropping consecutive games for just the second time this season.
They haven’t lost often, a trend allowing them to hold the Eastern Conference’s top spot when games resume Wednesday after a three-day holiday break.
But on the nine occasions when the Rangers have faltered, they’ve prevented — with one exception — those isolated defeats from spiraling into a streak.
After their 4-3 victory against the Sabres on Saturday, the Blueshirts moved to 8-1-0 under head coach Peter Laviolette this season following a loss.
They fell to the Oilers on Friday, and with their win the following night at the Garden, the Blueshirts moved to 5-0 in the final game of back-to-backs in 2023-24, with another set scheduled for Friday and Saturday against the Panthers and Lightning, respectively.
Sometimes, defenseman Jacob Trouba said, the Rangers’ ability to overcome those losses stems from the knowledge that with their current lineup and collection of talent, they’ll end up winning more times than they lose.
But Chris Kreider added that it’s also a “good sign” for the Rangers moving forward, too.
“That’s, I think, something that we pride ourselves on,” Kreider said. “I think there have been — you want to limit those moments. You don’t want to be responding every other game. You want to start stringing together some full 60-minute efforts. It’s always the goal.”
Their only set of consecutive losses occurred on Dec. 5 and 9 against the Senators and Capitals, but the Rangers then earned a win on Dec. 10 against the Kings to keep their back-to-back success intact.
They’ve averaged 4.6 goals per game in the second game of a back-to-back, up from 3.3 and 3.1 the past two seasons.
In Saturday’s game, the Rangers needed to overcome blowing a two-goal lead and another one-goal advantage in the third to avoid another loss.
Their offense provided a cushion, and then the Blueshirts couldn’t protect it until Mika Zibanejad skated around everyone in overtime and tucked the puck onto Kreider’s stick from behind the net.
“I feel like we’re a little more comfortable with where we are as a group,” Trouba said. “There isn’t really the big swings that there’s been here in the past.
“I think we know how we play the game, and we have the players that can put the puck in the net and we have great goalies and good defensemen.”
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