The Rangers and Canadiens entered their playoff series known as “skill teams” — NHL code for soft.
Five games have changed that.
A series that has seen its share of stitches, bruises and hits — legal and illegal on both sides — has emerged as the most physical in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“I think people are surprised,” defenseman Brendan Smith said before the game. “A lot of times, when I’m doing interviews, people are talking [about] how the physicality is. It’s been a lot. That’s what I’ve been noticing. It’s physical.”
Saturday night’s Game 6 in the Garden figured to be the most physical of all. The Rangers led the series 3-2 and had zero desire to go through customs again. The Canadiens were desperate to force a Game 7 on home ice.
The motivation for both teams was there, as was the fact that five games gives players more than enough time to build up a healthy hatred for each other.
“I know everybody talks about how the Rangers are a fast, skilled team, [but] so is Montreal,” Smith said. “But once you get to playoff time, you try to deal a little bit extra to get the edge.
“You see the same matches all the time, so that creates that familiarity, and some of that rough stuff comes out.”
Statistics can be somewhat deceiving in playoff hockey. Officials tend to swallow their whistles, and officiating can vary from series to series and game to game within a series.
For two teams that were not know for physicality, Montreal had the third-most penalty minutes through five playoff games with 52. The Rangers were right behind with 48.
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“It’s a very, very physical series,” defenseman Brady Skjei said. “I played last year in the Pittsburgh series and that was a much more up-and-down-type, offensive-type series. This is definitely defense first and a lot of bodies being thrown around.
“I think people might have thought we weren’t ready for the physicality. Neither team was a real physical team coming into it. Both teams have played a physical game, which is good to see.”
Both teams said all the right things after Saturday morning’s skate: Stay out of the box. Play with urgency. Don’t get overwhelmed by the moment.
“It’s going to be a tough game for us,” Mats Zuccarello said Saturday before the two teams hit the ice. “Montreal is going to come hard, so we have to be ready. We know it’s a really good team we’re playing against, so we have to have that mindset that they’re going to come hard, and we have to be ready to go right away.
“It’s been physical, yeah. That’s a part of the playoffs. But obviously this has been really physical. When you have two really good teams playing, it’s going to get like that. It’s going to be physical. It gets you going.”