For Rangers, a Chance to Sort Things Out at Home After losing three straight games on the road, the Rangers can take comfort knowing they will be in New York for 12 straight days. All the time the team spent in Europe and Western Canada at the start of the season while the first stage of Madison Square Garden's renovation was being completed is about to pay off. When the Rangers host the Islanders on Sunday night, it will be the start of a seven-game homestand. "There are a lot of games this month, and we need to figure it out quickly," Rangers center Brian Boyle said. The homestand, which concludes March 23 against the Buffalo Sabres, matches the longest in franchise history. Their last seven-game stretch at the Garden came during the 2001-2 season. The Rangers" run on home ice is not the longest in the N.H.L. this season. The Winnipeg Jets just concluded an eight-game homestand, and the Colorado Avalanche had one earlier in the season. The Vancouver Canucks and Tampa Bay Lightning are in the midst of seven-game homestands. By comparison, the Islanders" four-game homestand to start this season was their longest of the year. The Devils" longest was five. Last season, the Rangers never played more than four consecutive games at the Garden. The stand will not be a breeze, but it will be a respite of sorts for the Rangers, who are battling a minor slump in what has been a successful regular season. Their three-game losing streak, which the Rangers continued by blowing a 2-1 third-period lead in a 4-3 loss Friday night in Chicago, ties the team's worst stretch since the season opened. But they still earned 2 points in those three early-season games: 1 in an overtime loss and another in a shootout loss. They did not receive any points in their current slump in losses to the Devils, the Senators and the Blackhawks in regulation. "No one's happy," Boyle said. No one's satisfied. There's a bad taste in our mouths from losing. It's tough, because you don't want to lose confidence and become a different team. That is an indication of how high Coach John Tortorella has raised the bar for a team that has a 1-3-1 record over its past five games. "We've got to come together," defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. We've got to stay together. We can't let things on the outside bother us. We know, as a group, we're strong. We've got to find that again. Over the next seven games, the Rangers will face four teams currently not in playoff position (the Islanders, Carolina, Colorado and Buffalo) and three stronger opponents: the Penguins - who will probably have Sidney Crosby back in the lineup - the Devils and the Red Wings. The Avalanche and the Sabres are close to the eighth and final playoff spots in their conferences. Last-place teams like the Islanders and the Hurricanes have not been mathematically eliminated, but they often play loose and can be dangerous this time of the season. "We know every team is going to come at us hard for the rest of the season," said Ryan Callahan, the Rangers" captain. It doesn't matter where they are in the standings. Every team is playing for something. Playing nearly two weeks at home will give the Rangers" players and coaches a long stretch to host relatives and friends in New York. John Scott, a forward acquired at the trade deadline from Chicago, will be reunited with his wife and their daughter, who was born on Christmas Eve. But Scott and his teammates can expect to spend a lot of time at the rink. The Rangers" home games are every other night for the 12 days, giving Tortorella ample time to run practices on the days between. The Rangers" power play is 1 for 18 in the last eight games. After going 30-1-3 in games in which they scored the first goal, they lost back-to-back games in Ottawa and Chicago after opening the scoring. The Rangers" lead atop the Eastern Conference and Atlantic Division has shrunk to 4 points over Pittsburgh. "We're going to continue to work on our game, try to chip out the mistakes," said Tortorella, who said he was satisfied by his team's effort Friday in Chicago. Let's see if we can get a little bit of traction here.