NASH FORWARD
Blueshirts winger puts past behind him with new attitude
There used to be a guy named Rick Nash who came to the Rangers with huge expectations, and who was shy, softspoken, and gave canned answers.
At some point last spring, that Rick Nash officially was put out to pasture, and the man who took over is still a bit shy, but far more open with his emotions, with his selfcriticism, and utterly transparent about what he’s trying to accomplish.
“It’s the way sports works, you have to be honest with yourself, be honest with the media and with your fans,” Nash told The Post after practice on Friday as the team prepared for a preseason game against the Devils in Newark on Saturday. “I think that’s all you can do and everything else kind of takes care of itself.”
The “everything else” that Nash referred to is, in part, getting the Rangers over the hump and winning their first Stanley Cup since 1994. For the 31yearold Nash, his 12 seasons in the league have produced an ample number of individual accolades, and now having his face pressed up against that shinny silver chalice is all he cares about.
“That’s always in the back of the head,” Nash said. “I think what good teams do is forget about whatever happened, whether you win or lose. Teams like Chicago that are there every single year, I don’t think they dwell on the ones that they lose, they just move on and try to win more.”
So Nash has moved on from last postseason, when he scored five goals in 19 games while the Blueshirts fell to the Lightning in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals. He has moved on from the previous postseason, when he had five goals in 25 games and the Rangers made it all the way to Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final before losing to the Kings. He even, if memory allows you to go back that far, has moved on from that first spring with Nash wearing the Rangers’ sweater, when it was a total of one goal in 12 games for thencoach John Tortorella and a secondround loss to the Bruins.
“I think I could still be better,” said Nash, who scored a teamhigh 42 goals in the regular season and was a legitimate Hart Trophy contender until about the final two months. “But I don’t look back too much. It’s a new season. What has happened, it’s happened.”
Nash has arrived at camp in terrific shape the past two years, and current coach Alain Vigneault credits that to a meeting with Hall of Famer Steve Yzerman, when Nash played for Team Canada in the 2014 Olympics.
“Steve explained to him that when he turned 30, he had to do a little bit more, and I think that’s what we’re seeing from Rick,” Vigneault said. “He’s doing a lot of work on the ice, a lot of work off the ice, to keep his skill set, to keep his form sharp. It paid off for us last year, I thought, as the season went on. And I see the same mindset, the same attitude, right now moving forward.
“I think he can still progress as a player. He’s a great twoway player, and I’m hoping that’s going to continue.”
So does Nash, who is now fully committed to getting better himself for the betterment of the team.
“I think I’m at the point where all I’m trying to do individually is help the team win,” Nash said. “Whether that’s be good on the PK, create goals, create offense, create momentum, that’s what I’m worried about individually, is to win a championship and do everything I can to help the team win it.”