Rangers enjoying 'better vibe' during 7-game point streak

The New York Rangers are looking a lot more like the team most expected them to be this season amid a seven-game point streak, and the mood in the locker room has drastically improved following a tumultuous first half of the campaign.

"You ask any team, when they're winning games it's just a lot better vibe and a lot better energy," defenseman Adam Fox told NHL.com's Dan Rosen. "It was easy for us to kind of pack it in when things were going bad, we were dropping in the standings, but we know the team we have in here. We know what we're capable of. I think we're just taking it game by game and trying to just work our way back up the standings."

The Rangers are on a 5-0-2 run and within three points of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference after plummeting down the standings with a 5-16-0 stretch through November and December. The skid prompted the club to trade captain Jacob Trouba as well as forward Kaapo Kakko, and reports suggested the roster was fed up with general manager Chris Drury's personnel decisions.

"I think the mood in the locker room has changed tremendously ever since we got back from break," defenseman K'Andre Miller said. "I think everybody used that as a reset, put our previous games behind us, came back and used it as a new start to a new season 40 games in."

New York won the Presidents' Trophy with 114 points last season and reached the conference final for the second time in three years.

The Rangers return to action Sunday to take on the Montreal Canadiens, who are one point ahead in the standings.