PHILADELPHIA — For a team that had lost most of the races and one-on-one battles, that had been hanging onto a cliff by practically the last ounce of strength in Henrik Lundqvist’s grip, the Rangers yesterday still, at the end of 65 minutes, had the Flyers where they wanted…

The world has turned upside down.
With 10 games to go, the Rangers were seven points out of the playoffs. With one to go — after last night’s 4-3 victory at a roaring Garden to put the Flyers equally in dire need of one win — they’re one…

Winning is fun, Al Arbour reminded his Islanders on the blackboard before every playoff game of 19 consecutive victorious series.
So now that the Rangers have defied the odds and their own limitations to fight back to the equivalent of a must-win Game 6, the most important guy on the…

Hank got the yank Tuesday night after being beaten three times as clean as his coach finally came yesterday about why he did it.
“[Henrik Lundqvist] gave up three goals in six scoring chances, two of them at bad angles,” John Tortorella said. “After the [2-2] first period, I said…

Boston and Atlanta won, too, to keep the Rangers, who beat the Islanders, four points and two places out. So when Olli Jokinen said last night he didn’t “want to talk about the past,” odds remain strong that “past” probably already has doomed the 2009-10 Rangers.
Jokinen, dormant practically…

The Rangers, three points back of eighth-place Boston with eight games to go to the Bruins’ nine, have repeatedly proven in a 33-32-9 season they are only as good as their next game.
And now they are a loose team. Loose is their mood since being given up for dead…

The way Henrik Lundqvist was playing last night, Devils coach Jacques Lemaire could have chosen Maurice Richard, Gordie Howe and Mario Lemieux for the shootout and still not have scored.
But Lemaire didn’t pick Ilya Kovalchuk, instead he went with Zach Parise, who couldn’t get the puck through…

The way Henrik Lundqvist was playing last night, Devils coach Jacques Lemaire could have chosen Maurice Richard, Gordie Howe and Mario Lemieux for the shootout and still not have scored. But Lemaire didn’t pick Ilya Kovalchuk, instead he went with Zach Parise, who couldn’t get the puck through…

The Rangers now have it going, just in time to cost them better draft position. Freed by their failures, suddenly as loose as Sean Avery’s old set of lips, last night they started their hard drive to falling short of a postseason berth with a 5-0 shutout of an…

If it is any consolation, the Rangers are recharged and ready to go.
“I think the last two days we loosened up a little bit,” Brandon Dubinsky said after yesterday’s practice. “And I mean that in a good way. I thought guys were upbeat and ready for the uphill…