Rangers have shown a strong ability to bounce back this season

 In the pre-Christmas portion of their season, one of the more impressive things the Rangers did was find ways to bounce back after they’d lost a game. Over their first 32 games, they lost two in a row only once, and their record in games following a loss was 8-1, including a 4-3 overtime win over the Buffalo Sabres Saturday. That came after a disappointing loss to the Edmonton Oilers the night before.

 “We hate losing in here,’’ center Vincent Trocheck said afterward. “I mean, we expect the most out of this team. We think we're one of the best teams in the league, so anytime we lay an egg [as against Edmonton], it frustrates us, obviously.’’

 Along the same lines, the Rangers haven’t lost two games in a row to the same opponent yet this season, and that is one of the things that coach Peter Laviolette has taken pride in.

 “What I've liked about the season is that the teams that we haven't played well against, we've come back and gotten on the other side of it,’’ Laviolette said last week. “To me that's something.’’

 That streak will be on the line when the Rangers (23-8-1, 47 points) return to action Wednesday at Madison Square Garden following the three-day Christmas break, as they will be facing the Washington Capitals (17-9-5, 39 points), a team that humbled them, 4-0, in their first meeting on Dec. 9.

 That game marked the first time all season the Rangers lost two straight, and it was the first time they had been shut out. It also was the first game for Laviolette in Washington after he’d coached the Capitals for the previous three seasons. And he wasn’t in a talkative mood afterward.

 “It was not good, from the start to the finish, so no sense dissecting it here, publicly,’’ he said in his one-minute, 13-second postgame interview.

 The Rangers rebounded from that loss to beat the Los Angeles Kings in the Garden the next night, starting a run of five wins in seven games. That run included a 7-3 home loss to Toronto Dec. 12 that was avenged by a 5-2 away win over the Maple Leafs Dec. 19. After the second Maple Leafs game, Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider, who scored the game-winning goal, said the Blueshirts had the Toronto rematch “circled’’ on the schedule, and added, “we thought we owed them one.’’

 In the four instances where they’ve played a team that beat them in their first meeting, the Rangers have won every time, besting Columbus, Nashville, Minnesota and Toronto in the rematch after having lost to them the first time around. Against the Sabres, the Rangers had beaten them, 5-1, in Buffalo on Opening Night, but then lost to them 5-1 in the teams’ second meeting Nov. 27 at the Garden.

 Trocheck was asked after Saturday’s win if each loss stays with the Rangers until they get a chance to get revenge.

 “I don’t know if it stays on your mind,’’ he said, “but whenever you have a chance to get back at them, it definitely is a reason to get up for the game.’’

 The Rangers should have reason to get up for Wednesday’s game.

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.