Brandon Dubinsky’s it’s-about-time return to normalcy not only has given the Rangers an additional top-six forward as the second-half grind looms, it also has given the club two lines that each can serve as the top unit on any given night and thus present matchup issues for opposition…

PITTSBURGH — John Tortorella will be behind the bench of one All-Star team to be named later when the NHL All-Star Game is played in Ottawa on Jan. 29.
The Rangers coach, who earned the designation by virtue of his team’s position in the Eastern Conference, will be joined by…

PITTSBURGH — In the City of Steel, Henrik Lundqvist was the Man of Steal.
Other Rangers emerged to play important roles in last night’s 3-1 victory over the Penguins that stretched the Blueshirts’ latest winning streak to four games in a season of all but seamless stretches of success, but…

Marc Staal led Rangers defensemen with 7:10 of ice time during the first period of last night’s 3-2 overtime victory over the Panthers at Madison Square Garden, but the alternate captain played 5:41 the remainder of the match in his second game after missing the first 36…

So John Tortorella is either being realistic or the Rangers’ coach is attempting to minimize the hoopla surrounding his team in consistently downplaying its record and first-place standing as those mid-season accomplishments project toward the postseason.
“I hear people asking, ‘Are you a Stanley Cup team?’ and that’s just…

PHILADELPHIA — The Greatest Spectacle on Ice turned into yet another showcase for the Rangers, who basked in the elements and under the spotlights in spoiling the party Flyers CEO Ed Snider wanted to throw for himself.
Honestly, no one is more surprised than I am by my own embrace of…

PHILADELPHIA — Ryan McDonagh left the ice just a few minutes into yesterday’s Rangers practice on the outdoor rink, but coach John Tortorella said the defenseman, who had had a touch of the flu the last two days, would be in the the Winter Classic lineup this afternoon against…

PHILADELPHIA — It isn’t true the first 36 games of the Rangers’ season have served as a rehearsal for taking the outdoor stage here this afternoon, or that the first three months have merely been a prelude to the Winter Classic, in which the Blueshirts will face off against the…

PHILADELPHIA — Of all the memories wrapped up within the 45-year rivalry between the Rangers and the Flyers, the one that remains an open wound in New York is the one from May 5, 1974, when Dave Schultz laid a whuppin’ on Dale Rolfe in Game 7 of the Cup semifinals…

PHILADELPHIA — Mathieu Schneider, the 20-year-NHL veteran defenseman who is the NHLPA special assistant to executive director Donald Fehr, has no illusions over the concussion issue that has become the scourge of the league, if not the sport.
There is neither pretense nor a series of parsed words from the union…