Bob Duff

Still in a state of shock after absorbing a 6-1 preseason loss at the hands of the Detroit Red Wings, captain Jaromir Jagr was beginning to question the capabilities of his New York Rangers.

“Obviously, we have to play better,” Jagr said. “I thought we were going to do well (this season), but reality has hit now.”

Talk about extremes, but then again, we are talking about the Rangers.

This is the way it works when you open on Broadway — there are only two directions you can go.

Hit or flop.

The Rangers are a team with a distinct possibility to do either.

On the one hand, there are so many reasons for optimism around Madison Square Garden as the 2007-08 National Hockey League season prepares to open.

After seven successive seasons of life as a playoff outsider, the Rangers have participated in postseason play the past two springs. Last season, they routed the third-seeded Atlanta Thrashers and made the top-seeded Buffalo Sabres plenty nervous before the Sabres rallied for a six-game series win.

“I think this franchise has turned a corner,” Rangers left-winger Brendan Shanahan said.

This could be the year the Rangers take the next step, maybe even the final step. Not since their 1993-94 Stanley Cup triumph has everything lined up so well for the Rangers to become beasts in the East.

For starters, they play in a wide-open conference where no clear favorite is apparent at the moment. You can make a case for the Rangers, for the Ottawa Senators, last year’s East winners, for Sidney Crosby and the up-and-coming Pittsburgh Penguins, you can even put the revamped Philadelphia Flyers into the equation.

“A lot of people forget what they went through last year with the injuries right off the bat,” Rangers center Scott Gomez said of the Flyers. “Some of the young guys, I mean they got hurt and at the end it was a different team. So I think Philadelphia will be right back on its feet and it’s good for hockey. It’s probably not good for us, but it makes the rivalry even better with the Rangers and Flyers.”

The Flyers, though, like every team in the East, are covered with more question marks than the Riddler’s sport coat.

Is Martin Biron ready to be a No. 1 goalie in Philadelphia? Are Crosby and company mature enough to take it to the limit? Can the Senators overcome the potential distractions of impending free agents Wade Redden, Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza and how will the team mesh with new coach John Paddock?

You ponder all the possibilities in the East and come to a conclusion.

Why not the Rangers?

Well, for starters, will either of Gomez or Chris Drury, the two centers scooped up by the Rangers back on July 1, the first day unrestricted free agents could be signed, work as well as Jagr’s center as Nylander did? Between them, Drury and Gomez have one 70-point season to their credit.

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Gomez gets first crack at this starring role and it excites him to no end. He’s skated on the same line with some pretty fair talent during his days in New Jersey — all-stars such as Alexander Mogilny and Patrik Elias, for example — but insists he’s never seen anything that compares to what Jagr can do on the ice.

“I’ve been fortunate to play with some talented wingers and guys that are just amazing,” Gomez said. “But I think this guy right now, we’re talking about probably one of the top five greatest hockey players ever to play. He’s that good.

“Jagr is probably the strongest player. He gets the puck in the corner. I’ve never really played with a guy that likes the puck, too, that doesn’t mind skating with the puck in the zone. So we’ll tinker with that.

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“It’s still a learning process. We’re getting used to each other right now. It was kind of like playing with Mogilny for the first time. You kind of forget he’s on your line. You just kind of watch what he does. It’s going to be interesting how it works out. And like I said whatever it takes, the good thing right now is we’ve got the options, you’ve got guys you can plug in here and there.”

There’s no doubt that in Nylander, his center for the past two seasons who left for Washington in the summer via free agency, Jagr found a magical potion. In the past two seasons, this dynamic duo combined for 381 points.

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“If me and him work out, it would be great,” Gomez said of the pairing with Jagr. “If not, it doesn’t matter as long as we’re getting in the points night in night out.”

There’s plenty of depth at forward, with Gomez, Jagr and Martin Straka on one scoring line, followed by Drury, Shanahan and Petr Prucha. Beyond them, the Rangers also added some much-need grit last season, led by pesky Sean Avery, perhaps the most annoying presence in the entire league.

That leaves no worries about productivity up front, just as there’s a sea of calm between the posts, when Henrik Lundqvist resides, bringing peace of mind to the team.

“I’m very impressed with the way he handles himself,” said Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom, who won a gold medal for Sweden at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics with Lundqvist as his goalie.