Rangers, Canadiens to Fight for Their Playoff Lives

The playoffs might not start for another week, but Tuesday's throw down in Madison Square Garden between the Rangers and Canadiens might as well be a playoff game. How big is this game? Well, if we believe Larry Brooks of the New York Post, this is the biggest regular season game the Rangers have played since the lockout. Yeah. It's that big.

It's entirely possible that one of these teams will be watching the postseason from the comfort of their living rooms (or the 18th hole of the local country club) and this game could play a deciding factor in determining which team that might be.

First, let's just take a quick look at the situation. Canadiens come in occupying the No. 7 spot in the Eastern Conference with 92 points. The Rangers, in a tie with the Florida Panthers, sit three points back with 89. It's a classic "four-point game," and a win (in regulation) for both teams is an absolute must, especially for the Rangers, who have the suddenly-surging Florida Panthers breathing down their collective necks.

Following Tuesday's game, the Rangers close their regular season with a home-and-home series with the Philadelphia Flyers. Aside from playing for possible home-ice advantage in the opening round, you just know the Flyers would love to deliver a couple of crushing blows to the playoff hopes of their long-time rivals. Rangers blog, The Manic Ranger, isn't feeling all that optimistic heading into the final stretch:

The Rangers are an embarrassment collectively in my opinion. The Boston game defined their season in my opinion. In that game they were outworked and showed less desire than a team that was already a lock for the playoffs. This Rangers team lacks gumption, it has too many complementary players. Scott Gomez, Chris Drury, Markus Naslund, Nikolai Zherdev, Sean Avery and Nik Antropov are all complementary players on good teams. And then to make matters worse, you have the high priced incompetence of Wade Redden and Michal Rozsival and at one point, Dimitri Kalinin to deal with. If it wasn't for Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers would have been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs two weeks ago. They are the only team other than the Predators, who currently own a playoff spot despite having allowed more goals than they have scored.

Brutally honest, and probably justified. The Rangers enter Tuesday's game having dropped four of their past six, including back-to-back losses to Carolina and Boston, while Sean Avery felt the wrath of Boston goalie Tim Thomas.

Meanwhile, in Montreal, there are reports surfacing that the injuries to Andrei Markov and Mathieu Schneider aren't as bad as they were reported to be on Monday night (which made them appear worse than the initial reports on Monday morning). Basically, it's playoff time and nobody knows for sure what the hell is going regarding injuries. It's that time of year when concussions turn into foot injuries, and nothing is as it seems.

It's difficult to imagine the ridiculous roller coaster of emotions Canadiens fans have been on this season, as every time they appear to have solidified their playoff status, they lose a couple of games and teeter on the edge of oblivion, only to win four in a row and get back in the thick of the race. A season that started with celebration and hopes for a 25th Stanley Cup, could still end with the team outside of the top eight in the Eastern Conference in what would surely qualify as one of the most disappointing campaigns in the 100-year history of the club. Even the off-ice scandals ended up being overhyped.

The Canadiens remaining schedule is brutal, as the they have to travel to Boston on Thursday to face a Bruins team that has currently won six in a row, before closing their regular season with a home game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. One win the rest of the way should be all the Canadiens need, but none of these games are automatic, especially if Markov and Schneider are out of service.

Meanwhile, the Florida Panthers are still complicating things as they close out their regular season with road games in Philadelphia and Atlanta, before hosting the Washington Capitals on Saturday. The Panthers are probably going to need to run the table -- or at worst win two-of-three -- to get in, as well as get some help in the form of a couple of losses by the Rangers (or a season-ending four-game losing streak by the Canadiens).

Basically, every game from here on out is a playoff game for these three teams, and it all starts on Tuesday.