ANAHEIM - The Rangers feel no need to sugarcoat it: They needed that one in San Jose. They needed the two points, and not least of all, they needed to feel good about their game again.
"It's very fair to say that, yes," David Quinn said after his team practiced in San Jose before departing for the road-trip finale against a reeling Ducks team in Anaheim on Thursday night. "I was just talking with Mika about this: After the Calgary game (two Sunday ago) - the Calgary loss was very demoralizing to us in a lot of ways because we felt like we did so many things right and really had a great opportunity to win that game, and not only did we lose, we lost 4-1. With the shot total we had, the chances we had, the quality chances we had, and we come away with a 4-1 loss. Guys were just demoralized, and I really believe that affected us over the last three games.
"I was real proud of the way we moved past that, proud of our effort, proud of our purpose - we gave ourselves a chance to win last night and we did. Obviously no one likes the way it ended in regulation but we're going to continue to grow. We got two points. We'll address the issue we had on the 6-on-5, but we got two points and we needed it."
Chris Kreider said after Tuesday's performance that "there is no reason we can't do that consistently." Kreider was a main factor in the Rangers earning the two points: He scored twice to give the Rangers leads in the third period, and now has a team-best six goals in the Rangers' first 12 games - a 41-goal pace.
Preview: Rangers Face Ducks in Road Trip Finale
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