At last check, the New York Rangers have lost eight of their last eleven games. After a woeful loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Dec. 9, they finally got back in the win column by defeating the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 on Wednesday night at KeyBank Center.

It was a low event game that shouldn’t thrill fans. It was also the Sabres’ eighth straight loss. In other words, hanging on to beat a struggling opponent isn’t exactly worth celebrating. However, as goal scorer Mika Zibanejad put it, they’ll take it. Zibanejad scored a power-play goal in the first period of the win. It was only his second goal on the man-advantage this season. In 28 games, Zibanejad has just six goals. The Rangers’ center must pick it up. If he continues to have a bad season, it’ll be tough for the Rangers to qualify for the postseason.

A Reilly Smith goal that banked in off Sabres defenseman Owen Power with 6:31 left in regulation proved to be large. He was able to pick up a rebound of an Adam Fox shot and have the good fortune to see the puck go off Power and past Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead. They needed it because Power got one back 90 seconds later to make it a one-goal game with 4:51 remaining.

Despite a strong push from the Sabres, they were unable to tie the game. On a second straight icing, Vincent Trocheck won a key defensive draw back to Fox, who fired the puck straight down into the open net for his first goal of the season. That held up as the game-winner. Buffalo made it interesting late. Power was able to set up Tage Thompson to cut the deficit to 3-2 with 37.7 seconds remaining. But that’s as close as they got.

The best part of the game came when Trocheck stood up for himself in the third period. With the Rangers still nursing a 1-0 lead, he didn’t like a reverse hit from Nicholas Aube-Kubel in the corner. If you remember, Aube-Kubel’s knee-on-knee collision with Fox in last year’s first round injured the star defenseman. He hasn’t been the same since.

Seeking retribution, Trocheck immediately dropped the gloves with Aube-Kubel. Although the bout was brief, with only a couple of blows exchanged, it showed character. That’s been a missing ingredient with this year’s roster. The Rangers haven’t mixed it up nearly enough. If they want to turn the season around, they’ll need to play with more urgency. That also includes getting more involved in scrums.

If you hadn’t noticed, the Buffalo Bills’ Dion Dawkins loved the action from his front row seat by the glass. There’s something to be said for players not backing down. During that one sequence, Trocheck didn’t. Instead, he showed more passion than most of his teammates have this season. If more players followed his lead, it would be a step in the right direction.

Ironically, the NHL on TNT panel interviewed him before the game. Trocheck discussed the Rangers’ recent struggles. “It’s tough sometimes not letting the outside noise get in. Realistically, we know what we have in our locker room and I think we just got to make sure we got back to that. Having the confidence in ourselves. Sticking together as a team.”

Whether or not they can build on it remains to be seen. The win kept the Rangers in the first wildcard spot. At 15-12-1 with 31 points, they’re a point up on the Tampa Bay Lightning, who entered Thursday night’s action in the second wildcard.

If they want to prove themselves, Saturday at home would be a good place to start. They’ll host the Los Angeles Kings at 1 PM. The Kings remain one of the league’s toughest defensive teams. They began play by allowing the fewest shots per game (28.1) this season. The Kings ranked third in goals allowed per game, only permitting 2.54.

It’s a step up in competition this weekend. Following a home matinee against the Kings, the Rangers will then visit the St. Louis Blues on Sunday evening at 6 PM. It’ll be their third back-to-back of the season. They’re 1-3 in back-to-backs so far. After losing 2-1 to the Philadelphia Flyers on Nov. 29, they edged the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 on Nov. 30. The most recent one was an epic fail. After getting outscored 7-5 by the Seattle Kraken on Dec. 8, they then lost to the NHL worst Blackhawks 2-1 this past Monday.

Considering how hard it’s been to win consistently, the Blueshirts are in dire need of a winning streak. If you channel back to Lou Brown in the classic scene in Major League 2, that means stringing together three in a row. They haven’t done that since Nov. 14-19 when they beat the San Jose Sharks, Kraken, and Vancouver Canucks. We’ll see if they have anything left in the cupboard.