MONTREAL — This was the Rangers’ highest expectation when considering the career ahead of Brady Skjei.
It was on display with the type of force the 23-year-old defenseman showed while his team struck the opening salvo with a 2-0 victory in Game 1 of their first-round series against the Canadiens on Wednesday night at Bell Centre. Skjei was quick with his puck decisions, skated with his usual deftness and even added a physical element that had been very rare.
He even brushed off a bloodied nose and cut lip when the crown on Andrew Shaw’s helmet hit him in the face in the first period.
“Playoff hockey, right?” he said after Thursday’s practice.
With Game 2 waiting on Friday night, Skjei was asked if he considers himself the type of player who steps up in the postseason, and he answered with an honest bit of self-confidence that also bodes well for his mental makeup.
“I want to [be], for sure. I think I have the abilities to do that,” he said. “I think my skating allows me to do some things some other guys can’t. I’m also a pretty big guy and I can play the physical game when I have to. So I think I could be a pretty good playoff performer.”
Well, strike that “could” from consideration, as the 6-foot-3, 211-pound Skjei was a mainstay of a defensive performance the Rangers can use as a template for how to continue to hang with the Canadiens. Despite Skjei getting only 16:10 of ice time, coach Alain Vigneault didn’t see the minutes as a strict indicator of usage — or usefulness.
“Sometimes, some guys, you look at their minutes, don’t seem that high,” Vigneault said. “But the intensity of those minutes and the number of shifts that they have make it that it’s a demanding game. In the playoffs, that’s one thing — because of what’s at stake, because of the hyper-awareness of everything that’s going on, every game is a huge battle.”
That is something Skjei is getting used to, having made his postseason debut last season while playing in each game of the Rangers’ five-game first-round loss to the Penguins. But this was technically his rookie regular season, and he hardly played like a rookie.
His emergence also has allowed Vigneault to utilize him as a key contributor on the backend, which is where the Rangers are weakest. The decision Vigneault had to make coming into Game 1 was who to sit on the right side, and he chose veteran Kevin Klein. Playing instead was Nick Holden, who once again struggled against the forceful Canadiens forecheck.
Yet with stability (for now) in the top pair of Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi, and with Skjei creating a dynamic second pair with newcomer Brendan Smith, the possibility of swapping Holden for Klein — or even Steve Kampfer — doesn’t seem like that big a deal.
“I think in the playoffs, depth at all positions is real important,” Vigneault said. “We are fortunate that we have some depth there.”
What they are most fortunate for is having Skjei, the kid out of Lakeville, Minn., who played his college hockey at Minnesota and was drafted by the Rangers in the first round (No. 28 overall) in 2012. It’s more than just the skating ability and offensive awareness that has made him an invaluable piece; it’s his poise that belies his age and experience.
“I think I’ve always been pretty good at staying relaxed and not getting too worked up in the moment,” Skjei said. “I’ve played in some pretty big games in the past besides the playoffs last year, and I think I’ve done a pretty good job of staying simple, staying relaxed and confident.”
It helps to have some veteran presence to guide Skjei, and Smith had 27 games of postseason experience during his five-plus years with the Red Wings. The two relatively new partners came together before Game 1 and devised a pretty good mentality, one they hope to keep.
“Me and Smitty were talking about being physical and playing defensive first, I think we did a pretty good job of doing that,” Skjei said. “We limited mistakes and I thought we played really solid.”