PUT A CAP ON IT!
Rangers end regular season with ‘W,’ ready for Cup run
WASHINGTON — The Rangers put the cherry on top of their best regular season in franchise history Saturday afternoon, with the cherry blossoms in full bloom and the spring sun beating hot on the District of Columbia.
The Blueshirts’ 4-2 win over the Washington Capitals in their regular-season finale — setting franchise records of 53 wins and 113 points — provided refreshing validation of an impressive six-month run. But the weather and the players’ excited smiles in the locker room were reminders that it’s now ‘that time of year.’
It’s the time of year when milestones are irrelevant. It’s the time of year, as center Derick Brassard said after scoring the 100th goal of his career, when the Rangers’ chase for the Stanley Cup officially begins.
And that’s all that matters.
“It’s nice as a player to reach goals you set for yourself,” Brassard said of his career-high 19th goal of the season on a first-period power play. “But for me, it’s behind me now. I have to focus ahead. It’s the same for our team. Everything we’ve accomplished, the Presidents’ Trophy, the wins, it’s gone now.
“Now it’s about the playoffs,” the center said. “We’re the No. 1 overall seed, but everyone is going to be out to beat us. We’ll have to be at our best.”
The Rangers (53-22-7) were much closer to that Saturday — in their second straight game with nothing to play for — than they had been in Thursday night’s 3-0 home loss to the Ottawa Senators, the first team in NHL history to clinch a postseason berth from 14 points out.
Rangers forwards Kevin Hayes (goal, assist), Dominic Moore (goal, assist) and Brassard scored on Caps goalie Braden Holtby (30 saves) for a 3-0 lead by 2:30 of the second period. Alex Ovechkin’s league-leading 53rd goal on the power play four minutes later narrowed the deficit to 3-1, but Washington never got closer.
Blueshirts forward Jesper Fast added an empty-netter at 18:06 of the third period, then Caps rookie Stanislav Galiev scored his first career NHL goal at 19:31 to put a final dent in Henrik Lundqvist’s save percentage.
Lundqvist (22 saves), however, did not mind. He was beaming that he had reached 30 wins (30-13-3) for the ninth time in his nine full, 82-game seasons, despite only 46 appearances due to the vascular injury that sidelined him from Feb. 4 through March 26.
“Coming back after two months off, I kind of set a personal goal to reach 30 wins,” said Lundqvist, who finished 5-2-0 after getting healthy. “I felt like these were important games even though we didn’t have that much to play for. Personally, I wanted to have the same feeling now that I know I’ll have next week. You want to put pressure on yourself to try to win, and it was good to have that.”
Several Rangers are getting hot at the best time: Martin St. Louis (two assists) had five points in his final five games. Captain Ryan McDonagh (assist) closed with eight points in eight games. Defenseman Dan Boyle just completed his best month of the season. Deadline acquisition Keith Yandle’s final two weeks on the blue line were superb. The team also is expected to be completely healthy for Thursday’s start of its first-round series against Pittsburgh. Mats Zuccarello returned Saturday after a two-game respite. Saturday scratches Rick Nash and Marc Staal aren’t concerns, and Kevin Klein (broken left arm) should be fully recovered.
By then, as Brassard said, the momentum of Saturday’s win might not matter.
“Personally, I feel like you kind of start over,” Lundqvist echoed.
And yet, the Rangers did just break two franchise records previously held by their immortalized 1994 predecessors.
“You need to believe in what you have in this room,” Lundqvist said. “We believe in the system, the players we have here, and I think it’s important that you see yourself succeed going into the playoffs.”