It wasn’t a stretch to suggest that Sunday night’s showdown between the Anaheim Ducks and New York Rangers was a possible Stanley Cup finals preview. The Rangers are starting to put a gap between themselves and the rest of the East, while the Ducks have been on top of the Western Conference standings all season.

Then the game was played -- and it was hard to imagine both these teams playing in the finals.

The Rangers, if you missed it, poured in seven goals. Multiple players broke out of small scoring slumps, and New York ended a drought on the power play. It was impressive, and it also supports a theory suggested by one NHL GM last week.

We were chatting about how wide-open the Eastern Conference race is, and he objected slightly. It may not be as wide-open as we think.

“The Rangers are better than they were last year,” he said.

And last year’s Rangers team was pretty good. That team played for a Stanley Cup, and if you believe the West is down slightly this season compared to last, that means the Rangers have wiped out any gap between them and the Western elite.