Offensive depth has Rangers on verge of sweep, Avalanche and Oilers each up 2

Nine players have already scored for the New York Rangers and Edmonton Oilers, 10 for the Colorado Avalanche.

That depth of scoring early in the NHL playoffs has the Rangers on the verge of sweeping Washington, while Edmonton and Colorado are looking to take 3-1 leads Sunday in their respective first-round series against Los Angeles and Winnipeg.

“You’re going to need that more throughout the course of the playoffs,” said Rangers coach Peter Laviolette, whose team could next face Carolina 18 years since guiding the Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup. “But I think getting contributions from everybody inside of a playoff series, a playoff run, I think that’s really important.”

Meanwhile, Nashville is trying to get something — anything — going offensively in Game 4 after falling behind 2-1 to Vancouver despite outshooting the Canucks 30-12. The Predators got goalie’d by backup Casey DeSmith, leaving coach Andrew Brunette to say: “It was fun hockey game. It’s hard to leave this game feeling awful about it.”