The playoffs are always about this shift, then the next shift, and then the one after that. Always about this game, then the next game, and then the one after that.
Always about now.
Always about the small picture.
But the small picture is always within a larger picture. Always must be placed in perspective. A 2017 Maple Leafs first-round loss is not as devastating as, say, a 2017 Rangers second-round defeat would be because Toronto’s window appears to be just opening while the Blueshirts’ window, well … wait, wasn’t it supposed to have closed a year or two ago on this core?
Henrik Lundqvist, Dan Girardi, Marc Staal, Derek Stepan and Ryan McDonagh are together for their seventh straight playoff try, with Chris Kreider now down for six straight and Rick Nash and Mats Zuccarello joining for a fifth go at a ring.
The Blackhawks, Penguins and Kings all present similarly longstanding nuclei, but each of those teams have multiple Cup championships to show for it. Thursday’s Game 4 at the Garden against the Senators marked the Blueshirts’ 59th playoff contest over the last four years and 91st over the last half-dozen tournaments, the most in the league over either span, but the reward has been only in nice tries, almosts and what-ifs in a business in which extended patience is not necessarily a virtue.
And so the question to Henrik Lundqvist before the Blueshirts took the ice in an attempt to square the second round about whether it has crossed his mind that this could be the last ride for this group and for this nucleus that is not getting any younger and might not ever be better.
“No, because everyone said the same thing last year,” the King told The Post. “Right now all of the focus is on the next game and on what we need to do to win now, but I know this is not our last chance with this group.”
Everyone did say it last year in the wake of the first-round, five-game white-flag defeat to the Penguins. Everyone thought it was time to break up the old gang that had gone to three conference finals and one Cup final under diametrically opposed coaches in John Tortorella and Alain Vigneault and diametrically different systems in the four-year span between 2012 and 2015.
But though general manager Jeff Gorton sought to engineer extensive moves in the offseason, the prices were not right. As such, Derick Brassard was the only headline act to go in the center-for-center exchange involving Mika Zibanejad while Keith Yandle, Dom Moore and Viktor Stalberg moved on via free agency and fringe defenseman Dan Boyle retired.
“People last year said that was the last year,” Lundqvist said. “And here we are again with this group.”
The group has evolved. Rookies Brady Skjei and Jimmy Vesey have played important roles on the team. Rookie Pavel Buchnevich has been a major storyline. Deadline acquisition Brendan Smith has helped shape this team’s playoff identity. Chris Kreider and J.T. Miller, maddening as their twin inconsistencies might be, had their best seasons.
“Our core here has obviously been together for a long time, but I never get caught up in the talk about windows or last chances,” McDonagh told The Post. “I think we’ve mixed in a significant number of new guys who have had important roles, so the group has changed.
“The veterans set the tone and try to lead by example.”
see also
Two vital ways the captain has steadied the Rangers ship
There is the leadership group of the Rangers that you…
The atmosphere has changed too. The last few years all seemed to run into one another, with each succeeding year framed as a make-up for the one in which the team had fallen short the previous season. Seasons were filled with talk about getting back to where the Rangers once belonged.
But not this camp and not this season. The summer of ’16 seemed to represent a break and a new beginning for an old, familiar group.
“It was different this year, there was much more focus on one day at a time,” McDonagh said. “I think we left the past in the past.”
And now in another springtime second round, it is only about the present, and most certainly not about what might or might not represent a final chance.
“We are here again,” Lundqvist said. “There is no reason to think about that.”