Really only after the New Year. I think they deserved a better fate (record wise) the first half of the season, but there were still plenty of people picking apart last years team for various reasons (easier second half schedule masking the fact that they weren't good, can't finish, can't beat big teams, etc.)
Last year's squad also hit a bit of a skid after the Olympic break, in fact I remember a number of people flipping the **** out after they lost b2b's against Philly (who they outplayed) and Boston. There were plenty of people who hated the St. Louis trade because it was supposedly just another blind shot in the dark towards a deep playoff run when it was "clear" that this team didn't have enough to go very far.
I don't know if you can call it luck per se, but this years team has done a really, really good job of having some portion of their game carry them when another is down. Last month when the D, Cam or both, sucked, the offense was outscoring their mistakes. Now this team is going through a stretch where they can't buy a goal and the D and Cam have stepped up. Then you have games like today where pretty much everyone sucks and the Goalie just steals the game. I forget who said it, I think it was Quenville, but good teams will usually have about 5 games every season where they flat out suck. The Rangers had one of those games today against a half decent opponent and they still won. That didn't happen last year, in fact there were many nights where they suffered the fate that Florida did (San Jose game from last March, for example.)
But the one thing that 100% has to sort it self out before the playoffs is the 2nd line. I don't know if it will happen with guys playing better or if they have to shift players around, but if they can't get Stepan and who ever he is playing with to start playing well, they're pretty much ****ed. If they can get that sorted out, I feel really good about this team's chances of coming out of the east.
