Newsday: Renney: I’m intense when I need to be

“I’m intense when I need to be and I get pretty fired up. I don’t think that’s something that should be underestimated in me,” he said before last night’s game against the Caps at the Garden. “But I do believe in the right attitude and a sense of timing. I think that’s a real important coaching trait, knowing when to do those types of things.”

Newsday: Rangers show signs of life in SO win over Caps

The Rangers did just that last night, running and gunning with a strong offensive club and coming out with a 5-4 win in a shootout. That stopped a five-game losing streak in its tracks, so to speak. They packed in a week’s worth of goals and packed up a month’s worth of grins for their next game in Florida tomorrow night.

Newsday: Avery focusing on moving forward

“Just feeling like I’m a better person and feeling better about myself is the most important thing,” Avery told a couple of reporters yesterday, after his second day skating with the Wolf Pack, the Rangers’ AHL affiliate. “What I’m worried about right now is today and I’m concentrating on myself today, and the game of hockey. That’s all I can think about at this point.”

NY Daily News:Rangers end dive at five games, beat Capitals in shootout

Tom Renney said before Wednesday night’s game against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals that “we really don’t want to get ourselves into a track meet with these guys.” Perhaps that’s why, by the time last night’s track meet reached a shootout, Renney couldn’t bring himself to watch any of it.

So the head coach had his head turned when a bounce finally went his team’s way. In the fourth round of the shootout, Ryan Callahan whipped a shot off the crossbar, off goaltender Jose Theodore’s back and into the net to put the Rangers ahead. And when Henrik Lundqvist turned away Brooks Laich at the other end, the Rangers had a secured a well-earned 5-4 victory over the Caps at the Garden and ended their five-game losing streak.

NY Post: RANGERS GET BACK TO BASICS IN SHOOTOUT WIN

The Rangers played with a mentality that has been absent for far too long, if not for most of the season. They played to win instead of playing not to lose. They played to force mistakes rather than being consumed with eliminating mistakes of their own.