HAIL TO THE CHIEFS
Rangers capture Presidents' Trophy
James Sheppard gets a pat on the helmet from Tanner Glass after scoring against the Devils’ Cory Schneider Tuesday night in the Rangers’ 4- 2 victory, which clinched the Presidents’ Trophy for having the NHL’s best regular- season record.
It’s been selfevident for a while, but now that the Rangers can officially call themselves the best team in the NHL through the whole of a sixmonth regular season, they can’t avoid the fact the most important achievements are yet to come.
“I’m very proud of our group, but we all know that we’re going to be judged by what we do in the playoffs,” coach Alain Vigneault said after his Blueshirts beat the Devils, 42, on Tuesday night at the Prudential Center, locking up the franchise’s first Presidents’ Trophy since 1994 for the league’s best regularseason record. “So this is a first step, and we’re going to get ready for the next one.”
It’s a terrific first step, because locking up homeice advantage for the playoffs is an accomplishment that reflects a culmination of so much hard work and perseverance. The Rangers ( 52217) had their lulls this season, and dealt with the almost eightweek absence of their franchise cornerstone, goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who returned to the nets on March 28.
So it felt almost proper, almost appropriate, almost meaningful, that it was backup extraordinaire Cam Talbot in nets for this one, not getting a ton of work in making 19 saves, but making all the bigtime stops that defined his tenure as the No. 1 guy during Lundqvist’s 25game absence.
“Once Hank came back, I knew what my role was going to be, and I’m fine with that,” said Talbot, who, according to Vigneault, won’t get another start in the final two games and could have seen his final action of the season. “Being able to do what I did in Hank’s absence was great, but
when Hank comes back, he’s the guy. Hopefully he can lead us on another deep run this year.”
Lundqvist helped get the Rangers to just three wins shy of glory last season, when they dropped a fivegame Stanley Cup final to the Kings. But to think back on the most recent time this franchise won the Presidents’ Trophy, and it doesn’t take much to trigger the memory of how that playoff run ended, with the Blueshirts’ lone Stanley Cup victory in the past 75 years.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” a laughing defenseman Marc Staal said when that fact was brought up. “It’s an accomplishment, obviously, to have a great [ regular] season. But everyone in here knows that playoffs is a whole different ballgame.”
The Rangers dominated this game for almost all of the 60 minutes, outshooting the Devils, 4021, and out attempting them, 5737. The Rangers’ power play did look lost for most of their 1for7 performance over 10: 40, but that wasn’t going to spoil a celebratory evening.
“With what we accomplished tonight,” a smiling Vigneault said, “I’m not really interested in talking about the power play.”
The playoffless Devils ( 323513) were playing their final home game of the season, and despite their constant stream of players to the penalty box — three times over for Jacob Josefson— the Rangers’ 20 lead built on goals from Kevin Hayes and Ryan McDonagh was trimmed to 21 by a powerplay goal from Patrik Elias.
That was still the score at the start of the third, but James Sheppard eventually got a tipin goal for the Blueshirts at 10: 41 of the final period to make it 31, which proved to be quite important when Steve Bernier got a prayer of a badangle shot to bounce in off Derick Brassard and cut the lead to 32.
Devils headman Lou Lamoriello yanked goalie Cory Schneider in the waning minutes, and Carl Hagelin put one into the empty net to put a bow on the Rangers’ most successful regular season in 21 years.
And now, with the postseason likely starting on Thursday at the Garden, with the opponent still to be determined, the Blueshirts can again focus on the bigger task, the one for which they will be most remembered.
“Season 2 starts in a week,” Staal said. “We focus Game 1, first round, and see where it takes us.”