HART THROB
Rangers' Nash habing MVP-worthy season
T HE next time Rick Nash tells you this is the way he played last year, nod politely, move on to another subject and thank him for his time.
Because Nash, as selfeffacing as he has been dominant through the season’s first 40 games, not only didn’t play this way last season, few forwards in the NHL reached the consistent level of excellence the winger has displayed on a nightin, nightout basis ... last year or any year.
The 30yearold is the NHL’s best player, a breathtaking blend of speed, power and creativity who has been worth every dime of his $7.8 million cap charge. He and Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne are the frontrunners for the Hart Trophy.
Hands please, if you’d vote for sending Nash to the Blue Jackets for Brandon Dubinsky, Artem Anisimov, a firstrounder and the equivalent of Tim Erixon.
Hands please, if you believe general manager Glen Sather got it wrong.
Don’t get me wrong: Dubinsky brings a valuable element to the ice, Anisimov when healthy is a useful player and that firstrounder, well, you never know. But Nash has elevated his game to rare heights, a goto player at both ends of the ice and on both specialty units.
Jaromir Jagr had a spectacular 200506 season in which he carried a projected Rangers’ lottery team to the playoffs while recording a franchise record 54 goals. But as exceptional as Jagr was in earning the NHLPA’s Player of the Year Award, he did all of his damage in the offensive zone.
The fact is, no Ranger has had a season like this since Mark Messier tore his way through the league on his way to the Hart in No. 11’s first year on Broadway in 199192.
It isn’t only that Nash is tied for the NHL lead with 26 goals, isn’t only that he has been as dangerous on the penaltykill as he has been on the power play (maybe more so), that has so impressed. Rather, it is his relentless work ethic that stands out, though there isn’t a single lazy player on the Rangers, isn’t a single guy on this team who doesn’t leave it all on the ice.
Look, I know. The Rangers don’t even reach the midway point of the season until Tuesday night’s Main Event at the Garden against the Islanders. No one is giving the team a parade for its stunning 131 run that commenced Dec. 8. After the Islanders, there’s another immediate tough trip up ahead, with three games in four days in Boston, Columbus and Pittsburgh.
There is plenty of time for rain in the forecast. The Rangers know it too. “There’s no room to take a step back,” said Henrik Lundqvist, unaccountably and foolishly overlooked for the Jan. 25 Some Stars Game in Columbus for which Nash will be the only Rangers’ representative. “We’re only right in [a playoff spot].
“But we’re having fun right now. We’re enjoying the atmosphere with this group. Winning is the easiest way to have fun. We have a great group of guys here who want to help and support each other.”
The Rangers became the second Eastern team ever to sweep six games in California and Western Canada by winning in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Anaheim, Los Angeles and San Jose. The only other team to accomplish that feat? The 199798 Canadiens, coached by Alain Vigneault.
Vigneault has the Blueshirts playing an electric and entertaining brand of hockey. They play at breakneck speed and with rare creativity. Even while still perhaps undersized, they compete and they win battles because they get there first. They appear to be in exceptional physical condition. The Rangers take care of the details.
Nash is a man on a mission, finally clear of mind after suffering concussions in each of his first two seasons as a Ranger. He is as confident in hightraffic areas as he is in open ice. He wants the puck. He wants the responsibility. He never has quite said so, but it looks as if he is driven to atone for coming up empty in the Cup final against L.A.
His 26th goal was the emptynetter that sealed Saturday’s 31 victory over the Sharks. But in order to score it, Nash had to win a race for the puck in the neutral zone and then fend off a pair of hectoring Sharks as he protected the puck with that big bodied long reach and cut left across the neutral zone before slipping it through a sliding defender. Not your routine emptynetter. Not your routine player having your routine season, either.
No matter what he says.