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Rangers packing it in

The New York Rangers (25-24-5), who are five points ahead of the Canadiens in the Eastern Conference standings, have basically packed it in this season and are starting a rebuild, sending an official message to their fans from team president Glen Sather and general manager Jeff Gorton on Thursday letting them know that.

Pacioretty said after practice Friday that he hadn’t seen the Rangers letter yet, but had no problem with it when told what it said.

“Obviously, every market’s different,” Pacioretty said. “In some markets you have to hide things more so than others. But I don’t see a problem in what they did. I don’t know if other people saw a problem. … I think they’re a team that recognized they need change and it looks like they’re doing it. We’ll see how it plays out.

“For sure, everyone assumed that anyways, right?” Pacioretty added. “I’m sure in an organization when that’s the case, everyone in the room probably knows that that’s going to happen, whether it’s spoken about on the outside or not. I think teams have a pretty good pulse as to what’s going to happen, whether it be agents or people that they know in the organization talking to them. I’m sure the players on the Rangers had a good idea of that being the case and I’m sure they weren’t blind-sided by what was said, so I don’t see a problem with that.”

With trade rumours circulating ahead of the NHL’s Feb. 26 deadline — including some involving Pacioretty — the captain was asked about the atmosphere in the Canadiens’ locker room these days.

“In every room we go in in the rink they’ve got the (sports) news on and whether we like it or not that just comes with the territory with playing in Montreal,” Pacioretty said about the trade talk. “I think we’re at the point now where we just kind of focus on our game and let the rest play out. We can’t really control what’s going on.

“Obviously, I wish this wouldn’t be the case — all of us wish this wouldn’t be the case,” the captain added. “It seems like it could have been avoidable and in that sense it makes it frustrating. But you also just got to worry about that next game and what we can control. And that’s playing hard in that next game.”