OTTAWA — It was 13 years and three months ago in the suburban Kanata arena, where the Rangers will open their second-round series against the Senators on Thursday night, that the value of having marquee names for marquee names’ sake was exposed as fool’s gold.
On the game-day morning of Jan. 29, 2004, Jaromir Jagr ambled up to the podium for a press conference to begin his first full day as a Ranger after being acquired a day earlier from Washington. Preceding him on the dais were new teammates Mark Messier, Brian Leetch and Eric Lindros.
“This reminds me of my teams in Pittsburgh,” No. 68 said, alluding to the 1991 and 1992 Stanley Cup championship teams that included Mario Lemieux, Ron Francis, Paul Coffey, Kevin Stevens and Bryan Trottier. “When I look at [the Rangers], it’s the most talented team I’ve ever seen.”
Ten hours later, after the Rangers had been beaten 9-1 by the Senators in Jagr’s Blueshirts debut, Bobby Holik talked of the squad in somewhat less glowing terms.
“I believe fundamentally, we are the worst team in the NHL,” said Holik of the team coached by general manager Glen Sather.
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Fast forward to another era, the hard-cap era, over which Sather presided with success until turning over the keys to Jeff Gorton a few years ago. The payroll has gone down. The star wattage has diminished. But here are the Rangers aiming to advance to their third conference final in the last four years and fourth in the past six.
“We don’t have any superstars on this team,” is the way Derek Stepan started a sentence at the practice arena Tuesday, before amending it to, “Well, we have superstars on our team but we don’t rely on superstars taking over games.”
Except, that is, for the sole name above the title on the marquee. Except for Henrik Lundqvist. The most balanced team in the NHL, that presents unique matchup fits for the opposition when third-line center Kevin Hayes has his offensive act in gear, is reliant as always on Lundqvist to make the most impact of any player on the ice.
Ignoring or minimizing the effect of goaltending is the mistake made by those who are slaves to Corsi numbers and say clubs with inferior attempts rates are not good bets to succeed. Because goaltenders are not separate from their teams, but rather a huge part of their teams.
Or, as Stepan noted, “Hanky is paid to stop the puck.”
The most impressive part of the Rangers’ ninth-overall regular-season finish is that they were able to accomplish it despite a whipsaw poor Corsi (25th in the league, worst among playoff qualifiers) combined with a five-on-five save percentage that ranked 19th in the NHL.
In other words, Hanky did not stop the puck often enough.
But he sure did against Montreal.
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The Rangers were underestimated before the Montreal series began, evaluated harshly, albeit fairly, off a final five weeks in which the club won just eight of its final 21 matches (8-9-4). Now, it seems as if the Blueshirts may be overestimated entering Round 2 after winning four of six.
If you think this is going to come easily, you’re wrong. It isn’t.
The Rangers will be challenged to maintain their patience — an attribute not always evident — against a hard-working team with players whose contributions might exceed their name recognition.
The Rangers will be challenged to maintain their discipline — not always evident — even against the Habs. And it is imperative that they utilize the scoring depth that enabled the Blueshirts to bolt to a 23-10-1 getaway during the season and with which they ultimately overmatched the Canadiens.
Seriously, there are not many teams in the league that can come at you with a winger of Mats Zuccarello’s caliber on the third line. There is no other team that can throw out a fourth line featuring a 27-goal scorer, the way the Rangers do with Michael Grabner. And, on the back end, there are not many teams that can throw a third defensive pair out against a top line the way the Rangers can with Brendan Smith and Brady Skjei.
The Rangers cannot afford to take this series for granted. They are going to have to get their hands dirty in order to win. That goes for every member of this team which has just one superstar, 13-plus years after the same franchise proved on this stage the folly of collecting big names to hunt big games.