King sets tone in Blueshirts’ best game yet
THIS was a night, as Kevin Hayes was quick to point out, that Henrik Lundqvist was at his very best handling the puck, ranging behind his net to help the Rangers organize and break out crisply over the final 40 minutes against a Dallas team that had choked the life out of them during the first period that was almost entirely played below their D-zone hash marks. You know who else noticed it? The goaltender, himself. “Yeah, he came into the room and called himself, ‘Marty,’ ” Marc Staal, unable to stifle a chuckle, told The Post after Monday’s 2-1 victory at the Garden. “I told him that’s the standard we’re going to hold him to for every game.”
The King’s reference was, of course, to Martin Brodeur, who not only helped the Devils’ break out during his tenure as perhaps the game’s greatest puckhandling goaltender but equally as importantly saved his defensemen from being hit a cumulative thousand times. That was also one of the net effects of Lundqvist’s expanded repertoire.
“I don’t think I got hit once,” said Staal, who earned the Broadway Hat following a stout 22:10 in which he and partner Neal Pionk did the heavy lifting matched against the imposing Jamie Benn-Tyler Seguin-Alexander Radulov top unit. “He was buzzing it.”
It is no longer so early in the season. The Rangers are no longer just having a pleasantly surprising start. At 11-8-2 — and 8-1-1 in their last 10 — they’re establishing themselves as a very difficult opponent, able both to grind and freewheel. “We stick with it,” Hayes said. The first period, the Rangers were stuck in their own end for shifts at a time. Corsi is not dispositive, but the Stars owned a 15-3 edge in five-on-five attempts through the first 20 minutes. The Blueshirts were getting outmuscled, repeatedly forced to turn back and start again. No wonder they were able to muster only two shots on goal over the final 16:04.
“We couldn’t complete a pass,” David Quinn said. “My lord, it was tough to watch.”
The coach oversaw adjustments. After 20 minutes of being unable to get out on the walls, the Rangers brought their center lower and more into the middle. That helped. The Blueshirts won more battles. They were sharper. Jimmy Vesey’s circus backhand goal while falling to the ice at 9:38 not only negated Seguin’s power-play goal through a Benn screen at 2:17, it added some life to his team and the game.
“When it’s 1-1 going into the third and you haven’t played all that well, that can get you motivated,” Hayes said. “Jimmy’s goal picked us up, too. I thought we were the better team the last 12 minutes of the second and then in the third. We started making plays, and we didn’t give them anything.”
The 15-3 disadvantage in five-on-five attempts? It was 30-15 thereafter the other way, 12-6 in the second and 18-9 in the third. Dallas had seven shots in the first period, 10 the rest of the way, including one over the first 11:34 of the third as the Rangers protected the 2-1 lead they’d gained at 4:32 on Filip Chytil’s big-time goal-scorer’s goal. This was one of the Blueshirts’ most stubborn defensive efforts in years.
And though it was a collective effort, Staal and Pionk were the pillars on the back end. Pionk was at a significant size disadvantage while battling in front, yet he got the job done. Indeed, Quinn had him out for the final 1:29 after the Stars had pulled their goaltender for the extra attacker, where it’s kind of a melee.
“He’s quick to the puck and he competes his — can I say the ‘A’ word? — he competes his ass off,” said the coach, who gave No. 44 a team-high 25:15. “He’s a really good hockey player.”
The Staal-Pionk matchup pair has been intact for the last 13 matches. Of the club’s eight defensemen, only one has avoided being scratched. That’s Staal, who has been difficult to play against and has defended well while continuing to confound those who are confounded by his presence in the lineup, if not on the roster.
“I approach it the way I always have,” said the alternate captain who has worn the Blueshirt since the start of 2007-08 and is second in seniority to Lundqvist. “I just want to be solid. I don’t worry that I’m going to be in the press box if I have a bad shift or make a mistake.
“It’s tough when you have guys who can play and are [scratched], but that’s the way it is. I don’t think about that. I focus on my doing my job.”
That was the collective focus in this one, from “Marty” Lundqvist on out.