Rangers embracing busy closing playoff push: In a dogfight

The Rangers not involved in the 4 Nations Face-Off returned to the ice on Tuesday understanding well the task at hand.The team that won the Presidents’ Trophy a year ago with the most points in the league in the regular season, and got to the Eastern Conference final, knows it has some work to do just to get back to the postseason this time around.Join Post Sports+ for exciting member-only features, including real-time texting with Mollie Walker about the inside buzz on the Rangers.

“We’re in a dogfight,’’ head coach Peter Laviolette said following a short practice at the team’s facility in Tarrytown.“We have to continue to battle.

We’ll count on everybody.”It was a smaller group in Westchester on Tuesday, as the players who appeared in the international tournament aren’t back yet, but those in attendance said they were prepared to make a late-season run to the postseason.After winning three of their last four games before the break, the Rangers will open the final stretch facing a three-point deficit with three teams to pass in order to get a wild-card spot in the East.It begins Saturday when the Rangers visit Buffalo for the first game of the 27-game stretch that will determine their season.“I do like our chances,” newly arrived Will Borgen said.“We dropped a couple games, but that’s gonna happen.

As close as it is in the standings and with us playing a lot of those teams near us, it’s gonna be playoff hockey.”That’s nothing new for a Rangers team that continues to feel the effect of a 4-15 stretch that lasted from November into December.A solid run in January got them to the precipice of a wild-card spot, but they haven’t been able to sustain the necessary consistency to get back into the top eight.“We just have to go game by game,’’ Laviolette said.“The same as it’s been since coming out of January, when we were way behind [in the standings].

We caught up a little bit, but we’re still not there.We’re ...