The Rangers have played 1,005 games since the NHL reopened for business in 2005-06 and not in a single one of them have they taken the ice eliminated from playoff contention, their only tournament miss over the past dozen years coming via that 2009-10 season finale shootout defeat in Philadelphia.
That means Henrik Lundqvist has never played a game in his career officially on the outside looking in, and neither have Blueshirt blueblood veterans Marc Staal, Ryan McDonagh, Mats Zuccarello, Chris Kreider, J.T. Miller, Kevin Hayes and Jesper Fast.
Yet here were the Rangers in their practice locker room Thursday, being relayed the message by their head coach, Alain Vigneault, that ownership and management were officially embarking on a course in which the long-term interests of the franchise were now the priority, even if at the expense of a playoff berth this season.
They were being told that with 28 games to go and only three points out of the second wild-card spot. It is one thing to read it in the papers for a couple of weeks, quite another to hear it as a declaration of official policy.
“I’m not here to criticize anybody, but it’s only their opinion,” Mats Zuccarello told The Post following Friday’s soul-saving 4-3 victory over the Flames at the Garden. “No one on our team thinks the season is over and no one is going to approach these games any differently than we would under any other situation.
“We know we haven’t played well enough this year. Obviously we haven’t been good. But there are still [27] games to go, we’re not far behind, and we’re going to go out and do our best, block shots, sacrifice for each other and try to win games.
“That isn’t going to change because of what happened on Thursday.”
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This could not have been an easy call for president Glen Sather and general manager Jeff Gorton in a year in which the conference middle is soft as pudding and a playoff berth might well have been attainable by doing the same old, same old, by sacrificing the future for the present and adding, rather than subtracting, pieces leading up to the Feb. 26 deadline.
This could not have been an easy call for the owner, Jim Dolan, what with the Knicks all but out again and Rangers first-round playoff gates potentially worth $4-to-5 million per.
But it was the righteous call. Only thing is, don’t waste your time trying to sell that to the men in uniform. They’re not buying. Neither, necessarily is Vigneault, who was defiant in Friday’s pregame press briefing, his aggravation even prompting him to point a finger at Lundqvist, of all people, for his team’s plight.
It’s a tricky and sensitive time for everyone. The Rangers haven’t been deadline sellers since 2004, when a purge of veterans coincided with the club’s seventh straight season out of the playoffs. An entire generation of Blueshirts and Blueshirts fans don’t know the meaning of being bad. This group of players isn’t about to lay down and make things easy on management.
“We had talks among ourselves; different guys talking to each other,” Zuccarello said. “The coaching staff and us, we’re not giving up. The guys in this locker room are going to play for each other and hopefully we can show [management] enough that we can change their minds a little bit.”
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The Blueshirts played with spirit from the get-go against a pretty good Calgary club that had beaten the Devils a night earlier. The Rangers had started well against Boston on Wednesday, too, before getting buried once they fell behind. But on this night, even after a 2-1 lead became a late second-period 3-2 deficit, they persevered, and did so with a blue line that featured both Neal Pionk and John Gilmour making their NHL debuts in place of the recently waived Brendan Smith and the ailing Ryan McDonagh (lingering upper-body issue).
And they rallied to win it on goals from Rick Nash at even-strength — a pro’s pro, that No. 61 — and from Mika Zibanejad on the power play before Lundqvist, who entered in relief to start the second period after starter Ondrej Pavelec injured his knee, slammed the door to end his career-tying six-game losing streak.
“Everyone in here has pride,” Zuccarello said. “Talking for myself, I’m going to give 100-percent as long as I’m here, and I’m sure everyone else is, too.
“There’s a lot to play for. It’s not just for us, it’s not even just for the badge on the front of the shirt. It’s for all the great players who have been here before us. It’s for a lot.
“And we’re not going to give up.”