It’s been a whirlwind of a week for the Rangers, who had descended into a state of unrest amid a five-game losing streak that set off a siren throughout the organization.

Captain Jacob Trouba, who has struggled of late and recently heard his name in trade rumors for the second time in six months, fought Montreal’s Josh Anderson early in Saturday’s game. The Canadiens presumably wanted New York’s captain to answer the bell for a hit he made earlier this season on Justin Barron, and he obliged.

Kaapo Kakko scored the tiebreaking goal during a four-minute power play with 23 seconds left as the New York Rangers ended their first five-game losing streak in over three years with a 4-3 victory over the visiting Montreal Canadiens on Saturday afternoon.

The Canadiens trailed 3-1 after two periods. But Cole Caufield scored his 14th goal 4:16 into the third and Nick Suzuki tied it at 14:07. Trocheck tipped the puck past Montreal goaltender Sam Montembeault at 19:56 to put New York ahead after Panarin and Montreal’s Mike Matheson scored earlier in the first.

The Rangers were eager to turn the page after Friday’s disheartening loss to the Flyers in Philadelphia. They were desperate to end their five-game losing streak and a Saturday afternoon matchup against the last-place team in the Eastern Conference on Saturday in Madison Square Garden seemed like their best chance to do that.

The New York Rangers ended their five-game losing streak when Kaapo Kakko scored a power-play goal with 24 seconds remaining […]