NEW YORK — The New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils seem to be headed in opposite directions. The much-documented tailspin of the Blueshirts is apparently over; they extended their points streak to seven games with a dramatic 1-0 shootout win over the Columbus Blue Jackets at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, and are slowly but surely creeping their way back into the playoff picture, now three points out of the last wild card spot heading into Sunday night’s game in Montreal. They’ve produced points in eight of the nine games they’ve played thus far this month and are again comfortably over “hockey .500,” sitting with a 22-20-3 record.  More importantly, however, games like Saturday show they can defend for a full 60 minutes – and more, in this instance – against teams with some firepower. “I don’t know about showing it, but I know we want to be able to do that,” defenseman Adam Fox told The Trentonian.  “I think it’s not always easy to put up a zero in the defensive column, but if we keep the chances down and get the goaltending and we make the saves…it’s a good defensive effort, and we had some chances too, but their goalie made some saves as well.  That’s a team that’s obviously rolling, and we’re fighting them for spots in the standings, big points…it took a team effort.” Both Blue Jackets goaltender Daniil Tarasov – who became the first ever NHL goaltender to record his first career shutout in a shootout loss – and Igor Shesterkin were outstanding at times on Saturday night, but it was the freshly-extended Original Six star who shined the brightest, stopping all three shots in the shootout en route to the win. “Goaltending is huge,” said Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette.  “From a 5-on-5 standpoint, a penalty kill standpoint, from the confidence of your team…you play the game, you get to 0-0 in overtime, you know he’s done his job.  He’s played really well for us, and we need that.  We’re in a position where we have to win games, win points.” The Devils aren’t there yet, but seem to have regressed some from their league-best start, including a 3-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers at the Prudential Center on Saturday afternoon. New Jersey is now 2-5-3 in their last ten games and faces a challenging opponent in the Ottawa Senators in Sunday afternoon’s scheduled matinee. They’re now nine points out of the Metropolitan Division lead and only one point ahead of the third place Carolina Hurricanes, having fallen to a Flyers team that’s also trending upwards. Calder Trophy candidate Matvei Michkov scored on a breakaway, and struggling goaltender Samuel Ersson needed just 12 saves to shut down the struggling Devils, with the team in front of him giving up very little; the Flyers were credited with 33 blocked shots. “We do such a good job of blocking shots, getting sticks on pucks,” Ersson said. “I cannot complain that we’re good at defending. That’s the way this team is and that’s what makes us so good…when we’re good, guys are sacrificing their body, just putting everything on the line, and that makes my job so much easier.”