The Rangers did all they could on Saturday, beating the Devils in their final game of the season. Then, most of them got together and watched Carolina take on the Lightning in a game that would decide their playoff fate.
"The superstitious guys stayed away," Rangers captain Chris Drury said during a Saturday night conference call.
Whatever they did, it worked. The Hurricanes lost and the Rangers got in. They avoided another disappointing finish to their regular season after losing to the Flyers in the final game of the regular season last year.
That 2010 shootout loss is now history. It?s buried. And the Rangers can now build on the reward of an inconsistent, yet gutsy regular season in which coach John Tortorella ultimately guided a young group through adversity and into the postseason.
?We?re excited to be in and playing the Caps,? Drury said.
The Rangers were 3-1 against the Capitals this season, including a blowout in December that inspired George McPhee to scrap Washington?s high-octane offense system to one better suited to win in the playoffs. The Rangers have held Alex Ovechkin goalless in four games this year and he?s a minus-1 against New York.
But this is a different Capitals team the Rangers will be playing. This is a different Ovechkin. The reality is that the Rangers reward for getting in the playoffs is a series in which they?ll be serious underdogs.
That doesn?t take anything away from the resiliency of the Rangers or the importance of making the postseason this year. At the very least, it?s a chance for 24-year-old franchise defenseman Marc Staal to get even more playoff time under his belt. It?s a chance for impressive rookie Derek Stepan to get a taste of exactly what it?s like to play in the postseason.
The Rangers are building the right way, and making the postseason was crucial for that growth to continue.
?You look up and down our roster, we have a ton of guys who have never played in the playoffs,? said Drury, not one of them. ?It?s a great experience.?
Contrast it to the disappointing loss suffered by a rising star in Carolina?s Jeff Skinner, whose playoff debut is on hold indefinitely, and the benefits of Saturday?s fortune can?t be underestimated for the Rangers. Even if their playoffs don?t extend beyond the first round.
And because of it, maybe next year it won?t come down to the final weekend again for New York. Drury, for one, wouldn?t mind clinching a little sooner.
?We were kind of sitting and waiting. For a lot of us it was a long day,? he said. ?Sitting next to Henrik (Lundqvist) and watching that is something I never want to do again.?
No comments:
Post a Comment