WASHINGTON — Before the last time the Rangers and Canadiens met in the playoffs, in the 2014 Eastern Conference finals, Henrik Lundqvist must have been reminded 100 times he had not won in cinq ans in Montreal.
But the King was victorious at the Habs’ home rink in each of the first two games of the series, which the Rangers won in six games, so that should eliminate that five-year string of losses as a storyline leading into the first-round matchup between the clubs that will commence next week north of the border.
“The last time, both personally [and] as a team, we had so much focus on what we needed to do in order to win, that nothing else was a factor,” Lundqvist told The Post following Wednesday’s 2-0 loss to the Capitals that guaranteed the matchup. “When we don’t have that kind of focus in the kind of environment they have there in that building, sometimes we’re all over the place and it gets out of hand.
“When you focus on the right things, it’s easy to block everything else out. That’s going to be our challenge. I’m looking forward to it. I’m sure we all are.”
Derek Stepan, who had his jaw broken on a Brandon Prust head-shot in Game 4 of the 2014 series, an act for which the former Ranger was suspended two matches, said the Rangers must respect the Canadiens as division champions.
“You’ve got two high-skilled teams with elite goalies,” Stepan said, alluding to Carey Price and Lundqvist. “They’re a first-place team, we have to look at it like that. It’s going to be a real tough task going into their building.”
The NBCSN cameras caught a pregame chat between Lundqvist and Alex Ovechkin while the goaltender stretched on his bench and the Great 8 was out for a spin. The exchange ended with Lundqvist laughing.
“I will keep that between myself and Ovie,” Lundqvist said when asked what prompted the laugh.
Ovechkin got the assist on Justin Williams’ deflection of the Russian’s power-play left-circle drive through the legs of Kevin Klein after originally having been credited with the goal that gave Washington a 1-0 lead at 14:49 of the second period. Evgeny Kuznetsov got the other one at 5:42 of the third.
The Rangers did not have a power play in the match, with the club’s third too-many-men bench minor in the past nine games negating what would have become an early third-period man-advantage. … The Blueshirts, who have won just seven of 19 games (7-8-4) beginning Feb. 26, close out the season in Ottawa on Saturday afternoon and at home Sunday night against the Penguins.