OTTAWA — Derick Brassard was made for the spotlight, for the big moments, for the big games. Was made for Broadway.
All things being equal, he’d have been a Ranger for longer than three-plus seasons and four playoff runs. Lord knows, nobody but Henrik Lundqvist had more big moments in the postseason than the Blueshirt with No. 16.
But the fourth and final playoff experience wasn’t as much a run as a head-first stumble into a brick wall. And that would come to equal Brassard’s exit from New York.
“When last year ended, I didn’t have a thought that I wouldn’t be back, but that’s a proud organization with very high expectations and when you lose in the first round, you know that is not acceptable and there are going to be changes,” Brassard told The Post before playing a major role in the Senators’ 2-1 victory over the Blueshirts in Thursday’s Game 1 of Round 2. “That was me.”
It was Brassard to Ottawa in exchange for Mika Zibanejad and a second-rounder in a trade that essentially was completed at the draft table in late June, but was not consummated until the middle of July because of consideration revolving around a bonus payment due to Brassard, who now wears No. 19.
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“I didn’t take it personally,” Brassard said. “I think the whole thing started when the Senators hired Guy [Boucher] as coach, because he had me in junior. So I think it was a lot more Ottawa wanting me than the Rangers wanting to get rid of me. Plus, the Rangers got a real good young center back for me, so I wasn’t offended by it.
“The trades that upset you are the ones where they give you away for nothing. Like the one where I was traded to the Rangers.”
That was on April 3, 2013, when, minutes before the deadline, the Blueshirts acquired Brassard, Derek Dorsett and John Moore from the Blue Jackets in exchange for Marian Gaborik and a pair of minor leaguers. Gaborik is most certainly not nothing, but the world-class scorer played just 34 games for Columbus over two seasons before being sent to the Kings for, well, not much.
“I came to New York with Johnny and Dors and they got Gaborik, who didn’t really even play for them,” Brassard said. “That was more like a slap in the face.”
The Rangers got younger and bigger in the Brassard-Zibanejad exchange. Zibanejad turned 24 last week; Brassard will be 30 in September. They got a righty for the first power-play unit, whereas Brassard is a lefty. And, in not a small consideration at all, the Blueshirts saved a fair amount of cap space at least for 2016-17, with Zibanejad on the final year of a deal worth a $2.625 million charge and Brassard on the third season of a five-year contract worth an annual $5 million hit.
“I think I was a pretty good asset for them,” Brassard said. “It’s not like I spent this season trying to prove to the Rangers that they made a mistake.”
But consciously or not, he sure did in this one, zipping around the ice, helping the Senators dominate in offensive zone time throughout most of the match after an outstanding first period in which the center was perhaps the best player on the ice, both at even strength and with the man-advantage.
Brassard admittedly had trouble making the adjustment from Manhattan to his hometown, where pressure came in the form of playing in front of his family and friends. He had difficulty making the adjustment to Boucher’s restrictive system.
“Going from living in a big city to a neighborhood was a little different,” said Brassard, born and raised in nearby Hull, Quebec. “And there was a different pressure playing in front of my parents and family and friends because if I was struggling, they would hear about it.
“The playing style is totally different, too, so that took some time, but I think I was able to get comfortable here after a while.”
Brassard was a good regular-season player who led the Blueshirts with a personal-best 27 goals last season, but he was born for the playoffs.
He is Big Game Brass, whose 18 goals, 26 assists and 44 points in his four postseason runs on Broadway led his team in each of those categories. Now, he enters this series having led the Senators with eight points (2-6) in their first-round, six-game KO of the Bruins.
“I stayed in touch with a lot of those guys all year, like Zuke, Hayes and McDonagh,” Brassard said, naming Mats Zuccarello, Kevin Hayes and Ryan McDonagh. “But for seven games we’re going to put all that aside. I’m not expecting any taps on the back from them.
“I’m going to do whatever I can to knock them out.”
Game 1 was a good first step.