The New York Rangers have their revenge. And what a way to avenge last Sunday’s 7-3 loss, then to smash the Blue Jackets 4-0 on their home turf. Yet contrary to the scoreline, getting this win wasn’t easy. You might’ve missed it, but NYR coach Peter Laviolette was painfully aware of the nerves of his players ahead of the critical game. After all, a playoff position is at stake.

“We started a little bit jumpy,” said Coach Laviolette after his team beat the Columbus Blue Jackets. Yet, despite keeping a clean sheet, and finally getting back into the playoff wild card contention for the first time since December 2024, the Rangers aren’t exactly jumping with joy. In fact, Peter Laviolette’s Rangers might be the most cautious they’ve ever been.

The New York Rangers coach didn’t hesitate for a moment when talking about his feelings of getting back in contention to make the playoffs. “We got a lot of work to do,” said the 60-year-old. The coach explained in a post-match interview, “There’s still teams that are right there,” who’ll try their best to snatch away that spot. So the Rangers can’t afford to drop games moving forward.

When the Rangers came to Columbus, both teams were tired at 70 points, with the latter winning the tiebreaker on account of having played fewer games. That only added to the players’ anxiety. The Rangers coach wasn’t comfortable cutting it so close that everything hung in the balance. So moving forward, he doesn’t want to “juggle” how many “other teams got a game in hand on us.”

Instead, he wants the team to control their fate for the rest of the regular season. “We’re completely in charge of winning hockey games and don’t have to look anywhere else,” explained Laviolette. However, there’s “still a ton of work to be done” before the team reaches that stage. On the flip side, things only got worse for the Blue Jackets.

The New York Rangers hand CBJ another shutout loss

While coach Peter Laviolette was pleased with how his team played tonight, Columbus Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason felt the opposite. “I’ll be honest, there was some frustration at the end. Like you could tell that we were frustrated,” Evason admitted. However, stepping into the Blues Jackets’ shoes, it’s difficult to see how you wouldn’t feel frustrated.

CBJ has lost three games in a row after beating the New York Rangers 7-3 last Sunday. Among them was their 4-0 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. And it’s not like the Blue Jackets couldn’t create any chances in the game. What they lacked was the edge to bury them. “It was 8-0 in shots; they get one shot, and it goes in the net. It was frustrating for everybody,” confessed Dean Evason.

As things stand, the Blue Jackets have gone 129 minutes and 31 seconds without scoring a single goal. And it’s not just that. The Rangers game marked the second time in as many games and the third time in the last six games that Zach Werenski and co. let in a goal on the first shot of the game. Evason recognizes the situation all too well: “There’s nothing there. It’s not like they’re coming. There’s nothing there. It ends up in our net. We need one of those to come our way, but we need to work toward that as well.”