OTTAWA, Ontario — The All-Star break can’t come soon enough for a Rangers team that needs to seriously regroup during its eight-day reprieve from game action.
A temporary escape is all it will be, however, before the Rangers have to confront how the last seven and a half weeks will impact their road ahead.
But the Rangers capped a discouraging month with their most definitive win in some time, a 7-2 victory over the Senators on Saturday night at Canadian Tire Centre, to alleviate at least a pinch of the pressure that has steadily mounted on this team heading into the break.
They pulled it off on the second night of a back-to-back slate.
They made it work without two of their top four defensemen in Jacob Trouba and Ryan Lindgren.
They found a way after falling behind 2-0 less than a minute and a half into the second period.
It was imperative for the Rangers to do so, especially since the Hurricanes — who trail the Blueshirts by two points in the Metropolitan Division — beat the Coyotes, 3-1, on Saturday night.
The Rangers received a jolt from an unlikely source in Connor Mackey, who stepped into the lineup after Lindgren was unable to go due to an upper-body injury.
Mackey lit up Senators center Tim Stützle and had to answer to captain Brady Tkachuk.
In his Rangers debut and first NHL game since April 13, 2023, Mackey went punch-for-punch with one of the NHL’s most notorious tough guys.
It led to a five-goal explosion in the middle frame for the Rangers, who tied the game and snagged the lead all within the span of 39 seconds — the type of scoring spurt the club has been on the receiving end of more often than not lately.
The Rangers were opportunistic and the bounces that seemed to evade them lately made up for lost time.
After Alexis Lafreniere banked in a loose puck off the end boards at the 5:53 mark of the second period, Chris Kreider chased down a free puck and scored from long range to even the score at 2-2.
Defenseman Zac Jones, skating in his third game in the past 21, then had a hand in each of the Rangers’ next two goals.
In addition to burying a pass from Artemi Panarin, Jones also sent the shot that Jonny Brodzinski tipped in for the 4-2 lead, which forced the Senators to pull goalie Joonas Korpisalo in favor of Mads Sogaard.
Blake Wheeler later finished a two-on-one rush with Mika Zibanejad to give the Rangers a comfortable cushion, which was only further padded by Panarin’s empty-net goal and Kaapo Kakko’s late score in the third period.
Jonathan Quick, who made his 756th career start and moved into third all-time among American-born goalies, bailed the Rangers out on several occasions, especially in the first period.
If the Rangers were knocked off the puck and Ottawa came back the other way, Quick was there.
When Panarin’s cross-zone pass was intercepted, Quick made the stop.
But after K’Andre Miller coughed up the puck in the defensive zone, Tkachuk swooped in and put a back-hander five-hole on Quick to open the scoring.
The Rangers managed to clean it up after that in order not to waste Quick’s 29-save effort.
President and general manager Chris Drury will have a lot of questions to ask himself about this Rangers team, including whether it’s worth it to go all-in on this season and what that could mean for the future.
Is the Rangers’ 2024 first-round pick on the table?
Is the rental market worth exploring or is a long-term addition more practical?
Is there a lineup regular Drury is willing to part with to make a splash?
Which area — defense, the bottom six or the top six — needs tending to first?
Roughly two months ago, the answers may have been simple. Now, not so much.
The Rangers’ season is not unsalvageable.
Things are going to have to fall into place, however, for it to regain the potential it started with.
It’ll have to start with a deep breath over this All-Star break.
The Rangers should breathe a little easier after Saturday night.