LOS ANGELES — Three years later, 11 of the Rangers who suffered an agonizing five-game defeat to the Kings in the Stanley Cup final returned to the scene of the crime for Saturday’s meeting between the two clubs.
Backup goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, Ryan McDonagh, Derek Stepan, Chris Kreider, Marc Staal, Rick Nash, Dan Girardi, Mats Zuccarello, J.T. Miller and Jesper Fast (the latter two of whom appeared in the playoffs but not in the final round) were in the lineup and Kevin Klein was a healthy scratch as the Rangers recorded a 3-0 victory behind Antti Raanta to pull out of a month-long malaise through which they had won five of 13 games (5-6-2).
It isn’t as if this were the Blueshirts’ first trip back here since Alec Martinez stuck the Game 5 double-overtime dagger into the club’s collective heart, but memories do linger.
“I kind of have a mixture of pride and disappointment if I think back on it, which I absolutely do,” the 30-year-old Staal said. “Knowing how much it takes, I have pride in what we accomplished to get there. I have an appreciation for that.
“But what stands out most is the missed opportunity. When I go back and replay the games in my mind, I think about all of the opportunities we had to win those games, all the could-have-beens that went the other way.
“I’ll always appreciate the experience, and the loss drives me — and I think all of us who were part of it — to get back again and this time win the Cup. But when I look back on it now, there are mixed feelings that include a sense of regret.”
Kreider, though, looks at it from the other side.
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“I look back with fond memories,” the winger said. “Of course there’s a sense of disappointment, but I think much more about how we had a really good team, a really good room and a really good group.
“We had chances. I mean, I had chances, breakaways. Up by two goals, up by two goals, one overtime and two double-overtimes? How many posts? How many shots that just missed the net? We were there. We were right there.
“But we did our best. We weren’t perfect, we made some mistakes, but we gave it our all. We left it all out there. We left with our heads held high,” said No. 20. “We put our best foot forward.
“And again, I keep going back to how close we were as a group and how good a feeling we had about each other. So for me, my memories are good.”
The Kings, who are on their way to a second consecutive playoff miss, have 14 players remaining on the roster from that second Cup championship team within three years.
Klein, Steven Kampfer and Adam Clendening were the Blueshirts’ healthy scratches on defense Saturday, while Tanner Glass, Brandon Pirri and Matt Puempel sat out up front.