HIS BLUE HEAVEN
Playoffs at Garden have Brad fired up
Brad Richards has never seemed as comfortable in Ranger blue as he did after Monday morning’s practice in Greenburgh, when the 31-year-old center treated his return to the playoffs like a reunion with a long-lost relative.
“I haven’t been i n for a few years, and getting to come here and play in New York is great, but this is exactly the reason why you want to go somewhere,” said Richards, who signed a nine-year, $60 million deal as a free agent last offseason. “We’re in it now, we have the same chance everybody else does to win a Stanley Cup. We’ve got to look at this Ottawa team first, but it’s just great to have that feeling again, to be back in it.”
Richards can’t wait to take the Garden ice in Game 1 Thursday night against the eight-seeded Senators because he has not played in a playoff game since the spring of 2008. For a player with his postseason resume, that qualifies as an agonizing drought.
The shifty playmaker from the tiny Canadian province of Prince Edward Island (pop: 140,204 according to 2011 Canadian census figures) made the playoffs in four of his first six seasons with Tampa Bay from 2000-01 through 200607, winning the Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe Trophy in 2004.
“He’s a winner,” said John Tortorella, who coached that Lightning title team which also included Rangers winger Ruslan Fedotenko. “MVP of the four rounds.”
At the trade deadline in February 2008, Tampa dealt Richards — its former third-round pick of the 1998 draft — to the Stars. He helped Dallas reach the Western Conference finals before they fell to the eventual Cup champion Detroit Red Wings, but had not been back to the playoffs since.
“You could see today how excited he is to be back in the playoffs and have another run at it here,” defenseman Michael Del Zotto said.
GM Glen Sather brought Richards here to change the Blueshirts’ playoff fortunes, and he already has helped them grab the East’s top seed, finishing first on the team in assists (41), third in goals (25) and second in points (66) to Marian Gaborik. But equally as important is how his perspective on the playoffs could settle this young club down.
Richards emphasized on Monday how it’s crucial for players to manage their emotions amid the swirling tides of momentum and adversity, just as his Lightning did in 2004.
“There were some bad times during that run,” Richards said. “If you let yourself think, ‘We’re done’ or ‘This could be over, it’s not going our way,’ it can grab you and snowball quickly. That year, starting (from the beginning of) the Eastern Conference finals, we didn’t win two games in a row until Game 6 and 7 of the (Stanley Cup) Finals. There were a lot of ups and downs — win one, lose one, win one, lose one — and your mind can play tricks on you and get you down.”
Asked what Richards contributed most to that Stanley Cup run, Fedotenko laughed and said: “Scored the goals. I mean, just game in, game out, he’d be the leader ... a game-changer. (But) it’s not just one player, it’s not just one play. That’s why it’s so hard to win the Cup … You need the whole team.”
Fedotenko scored a bit that year, too, popping in both goals in the Lightning’s Cup-clinching, 2-1 Game 7 win over Calgary. He has played in more career playoff games (88) than any other Ranger, with Richards second-most senior at 63.
“It’s all (about) believing and everybody being on the same page,” Fedotenko said of winning in the playoffs. “(There can’t be) fingerpointing or somebody gives up a breakaway and (you’re thinking) that’s his fault. When that starts, that’s when a team doesn’t go too far. It’s about everybody pulling, everybody (being) in the same boat and trying to get to the same destination.”
Richards had 26 points in 23 games when the Lightning won the Cup. This season, he’s averaging the second-most time-onice per game among Ranger forwards (20:15), behind only Ryan Callahan (21:02). He is crucial to the success of the power play and faceoff draws, and Tortorella trusts him implicitly.
In fact, he is such a large part of what makes the Rangers tick, the “destination” Fedotenko refers to likely will become wherever Richards helps point their compass.