Starting tonight, the New York Rangers will have no choice but to begin digging themselves out of the deep hole that they put themselves in. Stuck in a last place tie with their arch rivals from Long Island, the Rangers begin a four game road trip which includes three games in four days. All of these games are against Eastern Conference powerhouses with two of the games against divisional rivals, Philadelphia and New Jersey.

New York needs to break away from their inconsistency and go on a roll like they did last year around this time. They do not need to make a trade; they just need their marquee players to earn their money, starting tonight in Raleigh against the Southeast leading Hurricanes.

A few players, Chris Drury and Petr Prucha in particular need to pick their individual game up from here on in. Drury and Prucha have no question been underachieving up to this point but have had some stretches of brilliance in the first half. The Rangers need these two to provide some secondary scoring for the Jagr line so that opposing teams have to defend all three scoring lines, instead of just the top line.

Look for Jaromir Jagr and Scott Gomez to not only keep up their recent strong play but also watch for them to start dominating games routinely. Ever since being reunited on the top line, these two along with Marty Straka (who was replaced by Sean Avery last week on the first line) have been providing the majority of the offense for New York. Jagr will have more room to work now that Avery will be in front of the net drawing at least one defenseman at all times. That means Gomez will be finding Jagr often and Jagr will be finding the back of the net.

In the past couple of weeks the line of Brandon Dubinsky, Nigel Dawes and Brendan Shanahan have been working well together and providing the secondary scoring support that has plagued the Rangers in the first half of the season. Hopefully they can continue to keep this pace up and since they give 100% effort on each shift success should continue to come for them.

Henrik Lundqvist is the only reason the Rangers are in playoff contention. Without his stellar goaltending in the first half New York would be looking ahead to the entry draft instead of preparing for a stretch run to make the playoffs for the third consecutive season. Sure, Hank has had a few iffy games but the guy plays virtually every game and gets very little offensive support. The King will continue his monster season and get the Rangers back to the playoffs and has a good chance to win the Vezina trophy this year.

Get Your Program, ‘ere!

The waiting is over…okay, it’s only preseason, but it’s still hockey, still Rangers, still the Garden.

While tonight, I’ll be watching the Blueshirts take on their rivals from across the Hudson, snug in my luxury box suite situated directly over the Rangers-shoot-twice-side blue line of my living room, I will be in attendance when they take on the newly constructed Flyers tomorrow evening. THANKS, HOWARD!

Top Ten Things to Ensure You’re Present at Tonight’s Puck-Drop

1. Scott Gomez in a Blueshirt carrying the biscuit end-to-end against the Lucifer-, excuse me, Lou Lamoriello-led Devils. C’mon, you still don’t think anyone standing behind the Devils bench, whether named Sutter, Robinson, or Shemp, actually runs the team, do you?

2. Picture this…from left-to-right…Avery-Drury-Shanahan

3. Jagr

4. Jagr

5. The Return of Kaspar

6. Broadway Debut of the RBK Edge Uniform System…Not. Bulletin: Anything stupid enough to be called a Uniform System, you can be certain is f*&^%’ed. But who can be surprised by this, coming from the company that brought ‘The Pump’ back for their line of RBK skates.

7. What sartorial flourish dapper Rangers coach Tom Renney will sport.

8. The irrepressible bluster, speed and spark of one Irishman, Ryan Callahan.

9. You think of something, I’m running dry…

10. New kid on the block, Artem Anisimov…haven’t seen the footage, but certainly sounds good. Make mine a double.