Rangers' next three games will reveal a lot about them

The Rangers’ victory Monday over the rival Islanders – their second in a week – was their fourth win in the last five games, and pulled them, at least temporarily, into a tie for the second wild card playoff spot with Detroit.

Afterward, the players were feeling pretty good about themselves.

“I feel a little bit better, with the confidence,’’ Artemi Panarin said. “Twenty games ago, we did not feel like that at all.’’

“It's maybe vague, but I feel like we give ourselves a chance to win,’’ Mika Zibanejad said. “I don't think we shoot ourselves in the foot in the same way we've maybe done it before.’’

The Rangers (31-26-4, 66 points) are 15-7-3 since the start of January and coming off back-to-back shutout wins. Absolutely, their prospects for making the playoffs, with 21 games left in the regular season, are much better than they were at the end of December when they were 16-19-1 and in last place in the Metropolitan Division. But no one should be penciling them into a playoff spot just yet.

Catching up to the playoff field, after where they were two months ago, is but a first step. It doesn’t mean they have anything in the bag. The games keep coming, fast and furious. And as coach Peter Laviolette pointed out, the race is far from over.

“We've got a lot of work to do,’’ Laviolette said. “We have a long way to go. There's a lot of teams that are right around us and you’ve got to stay consistent with the way you play, and hopefully that consistency leads to wins.’’

Certainly, they’ve played better in their last two or three games, but two of those games were against the Islanders and Nashville, the biggest underachiever in the league. And of their last four wins, two were against the Islanders and the other was against Pittsburgh in a game where they were badly outplayed and goalie Igor Shesterkin stole the two points for them.

Let’s see how they do Wednesday against Alexander Ovechkin and Washington, the top team in the East, before we start thinking they’ve turned everything around. The Rangers and Capitals (39-14-8) seem to have switched places from last year, when Washington was the last team into the playoffs and the Rangers won the Presidents’ Trophy and swept them in the first round. This season, the Capitals have beaten them – handily – both times they’ve played each other.

Oh, and the Rangers still have not won three games in a row since Nov. 14-19, just before they went into their 4-15 swoon that nearly sank their season.

After the Capitals game comes the NHL trade deadline on Friday – GM Chris Drury seems to have already done most of his roster rebuilding work already, but he could still make a last-minute addition – and then a back-to-back Saturday in Ottawa and Sunday at home against Columbus. The Senators are right behind them in the playoff race and the Blue Jackets are right in front of them.

The next three games will reveal a lot more about where the Rangers stand as far as the playoff chase. But even after that, win or lose, nothing will be certain. They’ve still got a great deal to prove.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.