SLICK RICK
Nash's numbers on rise at just the right time
Rick Nash has been unflinchingly honest over the past few years about his role on the Rangers, about what he’s here to do, and about knowing his importance to the team’s success.
Nash knows he needs to score goals, and he knows they haven’t always come in the numbers that he would like — especially in the biggest games. But as his team has gone through a recent malaise with a 6-7-4 record over their previous 17 games, with a seventh straight postseason berth coming this past Tuesday and the monumental task of the playoffs coloring their own inconsistency, his game has elevated to a level where very few players on his team have followed.
At least it’s a good sign for the Rangers that one of their best players is acting like it.
“When pucks are going in, it’s always nice,” Nash said after scoring his fifth goal in the past six games during Friday night’s 4-3 shootout loss to the Penguins, giving him 23 on the season. “You don’t really try to push it or think about it too much, but when it’s going on in, you just try to go about your business.”
The Rangers have all but locked in to the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, and very likely will play the Atlantic Division-leading Canadiens in the first round. After a day off Saturday, they will resume their schedule by playing host to the Flyers on Sunday night at the Garden, with only three games remaining on the schedule after that.
So to score now is nice for Nash, who has always seen his production come in bunches. But to still be scoring at a high rate in two weeks is when it will matter most.
It won’t take a lot to remind Nash he has 12 goals in 65 career postseason games. He had three in 25 playoff games when the Rangers were on their run to the 2014 Stanley Cup final that was after a regular season when he led the team with 42. The year prior, he had one goal in 12 postseason games when John Tortorella’s Rangers were ousted in the second round at the hands of the Bruins.
But his play right now is encouraging to the Blueshirts as they look ahead to another postseason with some hopeful expectations.
“That’s what you’re looking for,” coach Alain Vigneault said Friday night. “Any team that has any type of success in big games, in big moments, their top players have to obviously come through.”
Of course, the Rangers cannot be carried by Nash alone, and they got another encouraging performance Friday from goalie Henrik Lundqvist. Having missed almost three weeks because of a hip injury, this was Lundqvist’s third start since returning and was by far his best performance. Lundqvist made 32 saves, some of them spectacular on grade-A chances from some of the best players in the world.
“He was by far the best player,” Nash said. “I thought the score could’ve gotten out of control for a little stretch. They had a lot of chances, but he was definitely our best player.”
Vigneault had said Lundqvist is only going to sit one more time this season, that being one of the back-to-back games that end the schedule: Saturday, April 8 in Ottawa against the Senators, then home the next night in the finale against the Penguins. Odds are backup Antti Raanta will get the game in Ottawa, and then Lundqvist will get Pittsburgh yet again as a final tune-up for the playoffs.
Because that is the Rangers’ goal right now — getting ready for the postseason. They need to feel better about themselves at home, having now gone 0-5-3 over their past eight on Broadway. But the good news is that right now Nash is rolling and Lundqvist is getting sharp.
Those things continuing are where the hope lies for these Rangers.