How the Rangers acquisitions have allayed the team’s fear

There was worry about assimilation and disrupting the norm, because there has to be.

But the Rangers, whether by some sort of serendipitous fortuity or some sort of strategic intelligence, have found a way to ease in their new pieces. And as they do, they continue to rack up the points and vault up the standings.

Wednesday night's hard-fought 2-1 overtime loss in Detroit was the first game in which both trade-deadline acquisitions, defenseman Keith Yandle and forward Jimmy Sheppard, got into the lineup. And if they were still adjusting to the system, or if coach Alain Vigneault was still adjusting to their games, it was hard to notice.

"I'm really pleased," Vigneault said afterward, "with how both those guys played."

The Rangers didn't have to deal with Thursday's snow, having left Detroit following the game and taking advantage of a scheduled day off. The closest thing to an inconvenience was postponing their annual Casino Night from Thursday to Friday, another day off from practice.

When they resume work on Saturday, before flying to Chicago for Sunday night's game against the Blackhawks, the Rangers also will resume their chase for the top of the Metropolitan Division. They have traded places there with the Islanders a handful of times over the past two weeks.

"It's nice to know before the game that we have a chance to win every night," Yandle said. "We have skilled players."

Yandle has to be considered one of those, even if his role is changing rather drastically from his days with the tanking Coyotes.

"I would say in Arizona, he was stepping out on the ice quite a bit," Vigneault said. "Where on our team, his role might be a little bit different. So it's going to take a little bit of time to get used to it, but he's going to be fine once he does."

It's funny to think the best defenseman on the trade market was picked up by general manager Glen Sather to play third-pair minutes. It shows the type of team the Rangers think they have and brings to mind the age-old belief that sometimes all a team needs to get over the hump and win the Stanley Cup is that one missing piece.

"You can see the poise he has with the puck, 5-on-5 and on the power play," Vigneault said. "He's going to get used to the way we play here, and I'm confident that he's going to be a real efficient player for us."

No question Yandle is an upgrade over John Moore, who was partially holding down the left side of that third pair. Moore went off to the desert — with top-prospect Anthony Duclair, and first- and second-round picks — as the package that brought back the 28-year-old Yandle.

The same could be said about the addition of Sheppard, who played a sturdy 9:58 on the left wing of the fourth line with Dominic Moore and Jesper Fast. That added depth, and the versatility Sheppard brings with being able to play all three forward positions, is one more boost to what was an already formidable team.

"For Sheppard's first game for us, he played almost 10 minutes and I thought he showed smarts with and without the puck," Vigneault said.

Sheppard replaced Tanner Glass in the spot, and Vigneault liked the line as a whole.

"I thought those guys played well," Vigneault said. "They had a couple good shifts in the offensive zone. I used them quite a bit on faceoffs in our own end, and they did a pretty good job for us."

The Rangers have managed a 10-2-3 record without starting goalie Henrik Lundqvist, a commendable feat indeed. It might take the franchise netminder a while to find his game when he does come back later this month from the vascular injury to his neck, but it seems as if assimilation is something with which the Rangers aren't having much trouble at all.

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