No longer is this opening-round series about the dread and angst of the Rangers in the playoffs at the Garden.
For that narrative — which obscured the good things the Blueshirts had done to earn an opening split in Montreal, and had taken on a life of its own after the Blueshirts’ lifeless performance in their 3-1 Game 3 defeat on Sunday — was blasted to smithereens with Tuesday’s guts-and-glory 2-1 victory that squared this best-of-seven at two apiece.
It is now as much a thing of the past as the narrative saying you can’t count on Rick Nash to score goals when it counts.
“That’s a good thing,” a beaming Nash said. “Let’s keep it that way.”
It was Nash who got the winner in front of the net with a backhand through Carey Price’s five-hole off a beautiful feed from Ryan McDonagh at 4:28 of the second period to break a 1-1 tie. It was the second of the series for Big 61, who has been the Blueshirts’ best forward in the playoffs just as he was his team’s best forward in the regular season and, in fact, since arriving from Columbus over the summer of ’12.
“He uses his size and strength — the skill that makes him unique and so difficult to defend,” said Henrik Lundqvist, who was outstanding yet again. “I know how important he is to this team and how much he wants to win.
“He’s a leader here in the locker room. He always was with the way he plays. He knows he can be a difference-maker for us. He’s a player we can feed off. He goes into the battle and takes it to them.
“I love that.”
The Rangers took the battle to the Habs from the get-go in front of a crowd that seemed to spend the time between Games 3 and 4 doing as much soul searching as the Blueshirts, given the passion, noise and energy that flowed from the stands. This was a night of old-time playoff hockey on Broadway that ended with the team and its fans in a mutual salute after it, and the six-game home playoff losing streak, had ended.
“That game, Sunday, it was just such a downer after the good things we had done in the first two games,” said Nash, who was a force on and away from the puck throughout, playing on a line with Derek Stepan and Jimmy Vesey. “But we brought it in this one. We had to.”
The Rangers got the puck out of their end with minimal fuss much of the time, therefore allowing the club to get it in deep and go to work on the forecheck, which disrupted the Habs much of the night and produced a pretty solid ground game below the hash marks. Even when the Blueshirts didn’t particularly have anything, they were still able to send one man in on the puck while changing.
Alain Vigneault rolled four lines with reconstructed units. Pavel Buchnevich joined the fray for the first time and did not look the slightest bit out of place while skating on what was effectively the Rangers’ fourth line with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider, as utilized by the coach. Jesper Fast, who scored the first goal by taking it to the crease and jamming home a backhand, was relentless with matched-set center Oscar Lindberg and Michael Grabner. Kevin Hayes played one of the most physical games of his three-year career skating with J.T. Miller and Mats Zuccarello.
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Vigneault reinserted Nick Holden into the lineup in place of Kevin Klein, but when it got down to the nitty-gritty, the coach cut down to four defensemen for nearly all of the final nine minutes with Brendan Smith joining Marc Staal, while McDonagh teamed with Dan Girardi.
“You’re going to be behind in a playoff series,” Stepan said. “It’s the way you respond to that situation that either makes you or breaks you.”
And it is the way Nash has elevated his game in the playoffs that has made him such a critical piece of the puzzle. Entering Game 4 of the 2015 conference finals against Tampa Bay, Nash had a career total of seven goals in 56 playoff matches. Since then, he has seven goals in 13 matches.
“I feel that each year is a fresh start, a clean slate,” he said. “I try and do my best to help the team win. Obviously, that means scoring goals.”
Obviously.