PHYSICALLY FIT
The Rangers and Canadiens entered their first-round playoff series known as skill teams, which is NHL code for soft.
The first five games changed that — and the sixth confirmed it.
A series that saw its share of stitches, bruises and hits — legal and illegal on both sides — has emerged as the most physical in the NHL playoffs.
“I think people are surprised,’’ defenseman Brendan Smith said. “A lot of times when I’m doing interviews people are talking how the physicality is. It’s been a lot. That’s what I’ve been noticing. It’s physical.”
Saturday night in Game 6 in the Garden, which the Rangers won 3-1 to close out the Canadiens 4-2, it didn’t take long for the physical beast of the series to bust out.
Montreal’s Alexander Radulov snowed Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist at 4:51 while Max Pacioretty was crosschecking Jimmy Vesey in the face.
Pacioretty, the Montreal captain who has been far less than max, and Vesey dropped the gloves and the tone was set. It also allowed Pacioretty to get in the boxscore. Congrats, Captain.
At 12:35 Marc Staal crushed Brendan Gallagher behind the Rangers’ net. Gallagher had been camped out in front of Lundqvist all series, and of course one of the Blueshirts stood up for his goalie.
“I know everybody talks about how the Rangers are a fast, skilled team; so is Montreal,’’ Smith said. “But once you get to playoff time, you try to deal a little bit extra to get the edge.
“You see the same matches all the time so that creates that familiarity and some of that rough stuff comes out.”
Statistics can be deceiving in playoff hockey. Officials tend to swallow their whistles. And officiating can vary from series to series and game to game within a series.
For two teams that were not known for physicality, Montreal had the third most penalty minutes through five playoff games with 52. The Rangers were right behind the Habs with 48.
The Rangers added 13 penalty minutes to their tally. Montreal added their last nine penalty minutes of the 2016-17 season. There were 66 hits, 33 per side.
“I think people might have thought we weren’t ready for the physicality,’’ defenseman Brady Skjei said. “Neither team was a real physical team coming into it. Both teams have played a physical game which is good to see.’’
With the win the Rangers will get a chance to watch other first-round series possibly conclude. The Rangers play the winner of the Senators-Bruins series. Their Game 6 is Sunday.
“To be honest I’ve looked at some other series,’’ Smith said. “They seem pretty physical. [Friday] night watching Washington — Toronto, it seemed pretty physical. It’s hard because I’m in this series so it’s hard for me to be unbiased. I will be biased and say it does seem this is a little more physical.’’
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