Eeesh. Henrik doesn’t want to talk about it, guys. (Photo: Screenshot from Penguins post-game/ BlueshirtsUnited.com)

I feel you, Henrik. I had my head in my hands a few times during that last game against the Penguins. Hey, guess who just knocked the Rangers down into 10th place? The Islanders. Where’s the passion, boys? Henrik ripped my heart out with that post-game…

Let’s look at the mountain the Rangers need to climb this week:

On Monday, the Carolina Hurricanes (15-11-1) come to visit the Garden.  The Canes just jumped up into 8th place in the East, into that nice, cozy playoff spot we just vacated. We’ll see some Staals back on the ice in the Garden, since Marc’s brothers Eric and Jordan are the Captain and Alternate on the Canes, respectively. Eric’s been having a pretty good season, he’s currently 5th in the league in points with 13 goals and 20 assists racked up so far. Canes starting goalie, Cam Ward, is on injured reserve. The Canes lost their last game, against the Lightning, to rack up three losses so far to Tampa Bay. This is the first time the Rangers will be facing the Hurricanes this season, so we’ll see what happens. We also won’t see them again until April.

So we’re going back to back, with the next game coming on Tuesday night against the Devils (13-10-6). Luckily, the Rangers don’t have to travel far for this road game, we’re just heading across the river to the Rock in Newark. Sooo… the Devils. I imagine we’ll see Pete DeBoer and Torts screaming at each other during this game to head off some of the frustration they’re feeling with their teams. The Devils lost 2-1 to the Canadiens last night, kindly donating a goal to a Habs rookie. The last time the Rangers were in Newark, they lost 3-1 to the Devils. They struggled back up to into a playoff spot, but dropped from 6th to 7th yesterday. The Devils are having a tough season, with their main goalie, Martin Brodeur, out with a back injury, and their backup, Johan Hedberg, playing extremely inconsistently. The Devils won in their first game against the Flyers last week, and then lost in a shoot out in the second game of the series. This is an important game for the Rangers, but it could go either way. The Rangers tend to make silly mistakes against the Devils when they’re desperate for a win…

Thursday brings us the Florida Panthers (7-16-6). The Panthers kindly pushed the Islanders into 9th place with a 4-3 loss yesterday and dropped down to 15th in the East. The Panthers rallied in the third period to tie the game at 3, and then couldn’t answer a final Islanders goal. That seems to sum up the Panthers’ play this season: bursts of desperation, but just falling short of the victory. They’ll be facing Carolina on Tuesday, right after we play them. This could be a tiring game or an easy victory, there’s no way to know.

Our weekend game happens after a nice break; Sunday brings the Caps (11-15-1) to the Garden. So, after that awful play by the Caps last week, and their loss yesterday to the Bruins, it doesn’t look like Ovechkin’s season has turned around yet. If the Rangers can keep it together like they did last week, they should be able to regain some confidence in this match up.