Rangers keep focus on own play, not Habs

MONTREAL — It is understood the Canadiens are a good team, skilled and physical and with one of the best goaltenders in the world.

But rather than focus on the external, the Rangers are approaching Game 1 of their first-round series at the Bell Centre on Wednesday night with an internal focus. They’re thinking about their own game, remembering what it was like when they flew out of the gates this season playing at a blistering speed, showing a newfound pace and skill that had been lacking in years past — as well as for long stretches in this season of inconsistency.

“As strong as the opposition is, we need to play our style,” coach Alain Vigneault said after the team’s final tuneup before flying out, a practice in Westchester on Tuesday afternoon. “And if we play the way that we can, the way that we have done it quite a bit this year, we’ve been a ttough team to play against.aga That’s what wewe’re going to try to dodo.”

So tthhere i sn’t a ton of eemphasis on trying tto stop Monttreal’sreal’s top talents like Max Pacioretty or Shea Weber. Nor are they trying to let goalie Carey Price get in ththeir heads. Nor are they overly concernconcerned about matching the physicalityity broubrought by Montreal’s biggest tradedeadlinedeadline acquisitions, the gritty trio of Dwight King, Steve Ott and Jordie Benn, pperhaps not all of whom will play, but who are all available.

“I’ve gotg a lot of respect for a lot of the players they’ve added, but prior to that, they’ve got some of the most elite playersers in the league, up front, on defense, and in goal,” Vigneault said. “I think the most importanimportant thing for us is our game and our style and how we need to be successful.”

That means utilizing the speed they have up front with Michael Grabner, MikMika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider

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responsible, and they have one phrase that is paramount.

“I’m sure you’re going to hear it a lot in the next couple days, but puck management is really big against a team like that, that has transition and speedy forwards and a lot of talent,” defenseman Dan Girardi said. “If we make them come 200 feet through us and if we have good structure, we’re going to make it hard on them to get chances.”

One thing that became clear as this regular season wore on is space on the ice shrinks dramatically as the games begin to mean more. At the beginning of the season, when the Rangers got out to a 13-4-0 start and were scoring four-plus goals a game, there was ice aplenty for all their new pieces to fit. Then things started to tighten up, and it got a little dicey.

The past month of the regular season had been a bit of a struggle, as the Rangers f inished 8-8-4 going back to Feb. 26 while ave ra gi n g 2.6 goals per game. Ad mi tt e d l y, that was a time when the Rangers were pretty well locked into their playoff position and often had haphazard lineups.

Meanwhile, since the Canadiens fired coach Michel Therrien on Feb. 14 and replaced him with Julien, they finished the regular season 16-7-1 while allowing just an even 2.00 goals per game — also a tribute to the bounce-back performance of Price. Vigneault couldn’t help but pointing out the Habs’ depth, with the talented Alex Galchenyuk currently skating on their fourth line.

“No team in the league has a skill player like that on their fourth line,” Vigneault said.

Vigneault also pointed out the Atlantic Division-winning Canadiens would be the favorites in this series, and he was correct. But in light of all that, he was trying to focus his players on themselves, and what they can control.

“Coaches and players have been really talking about playing our game, trying to play a fast, high-tempo hockey,” Vigneault said. “If we do that, then we’re going to give ourselves a chance.”