BENEFIT OF DOUBT
Despite stumbling to playoff clincher, rangers and King deserve ...
THE FIRST instinct was to write 750 words about the Rangers in the wake of their playoff clinching 5-4 overtime loss at San Jose on Tuesday that could have been titled, “Zed is Dead II — The Sequel.”
Perhaps after the final five regular-season games and another four, five, six or seven tournament matches in what assuredly will be a first-round crossover against Montreal or Ottawa, that will serve as an apt epitaph for 2016-17. The simple truth is that for more than a month, in winning only six of 16 games (6-7-3), the Rangers have begun to resemble last season’s team for the first time. And that is not a compliment.
But despite the recent follies, this group deserves the benefit of the doubt. Its work ethic and attention to detail have been commendable — exemplary, really, until this extended malaise developed — and that stands in direct contrast to last year’s club. It is a team that has never taken the season for granted, an approach pledged during training camp and upheld through the marathon of the season, again, in direct contrast to last year.
A seventh straight playoff qualification and 11th in the 12 seasons of the hardcap era obviously isn’t everything, but it surely merits recognition at least for these moments before the club is tested in the crucible.
Surely there are troubling issues for coach Alain Vigneault to con- front, primarily a defense that has devolved into chaos and alarmingly does not appear to present a single reliable pair at this late date, and at the other end an insistance on making one pass too many that borders on pigheadedness. The personnel’s collective absence of physicality and pugnacious DNA is disquieting at this time of year.
But even though the Rangers were overrun for huge stretches of their three-game California tour, in which they beat the Kings, lost to the Ducks and then got the loser’s point against the Sharks, they still were able to come home with the three points necessary to clinch a playoff spot, ugly though it may have been.
So benefit of the doubt for this team that for five months wildly exceeded expectations. And benefit of the doubt for Henrik Lundqvist, who looked out of sorts for most of Tuesday’s game, albeit un-
der siege and left on his own for a disturbing amount of time.
In his second game since returning from the hip injury that kept him sidelined for just under three weeks, Lundqvist was almost unrecognizable. The guy for whom less yields more could not have been less like himself. The King was caught in a vortex of high anxiety, spinning his skates so furiously that he resembled one of those cartoon characters who digs himself into the ground.
It was as if Lundqvist attempted to will away the rust in his game. He was emotionally drained when it was over. There was little difference in his postgame demeanor between this night, on which the Rangers clinched a spot in the playoffs, and the final afternoon of the 2009-10 season in Philadelphia, on which he and his team lost a shootout and were last elimi- nated from tournament contention. That is how seriously and how personally Lundqvist took surrendering five goals for the second straight game since rejoining the lineup, including the tying goal off a botched play in front with 2:15 remaining in regulation.
It is going to take time for Lundqvist to recapture his instincts, his mojo and his aura. Two years ago, when he missed nearly two months with the torn blood vessel in his neck, it came together much more quickly for the netminder. But the Rangers, on their way to the Presidents’ Trophy, were rolling, 18-4-3 in his absence. Now, they are not.
Plus, as Lundqvist himself said, it has taken him time to find his game this year after interruptions in his season. He was bad immediately after the bye week and he was bad immediately after the All-Star break. There is no need for panic. There is no need to call for Antti Raanta, who won three of eight (3-3-2) in his run of starts.
There are five games remaining for Lundqvist to find the peak form he will need in order for the Rangers to survive the first round. Five games remaining for Vigneault and his team to recapture their essence.
Until they can’t or don’t, they are deserving of some benefit of the doubt. Lundqvist and the team have earned that right, just as they have earned a seventh straight playoff berth.