Battle fatigue
Lingering effect of all those playoff games showing up
T IS impossible to calculate just how much of the Rangers’ halting start can be assigned to mental fatigue or lingering health issues following the club’s extended postseason runs each of the previous two springs and three of the previous four.
But it would be foolhardy to ignore the twin realities that 76 playoff games since 2012 have taken an inevitable toll and that the three trips to the conference finals and one to the Cup final represent a contributing factor to the general teamwide malaise for these earlyseason games on the schedule.
Let’s not kid ourselves. No matter how accountable, no matter how professional, it must be difficult for this group to get motivated for Games 5, 6 and 7 of the regular season in the aftermath of playing so many Games 5, 6 and 7 in the preceding four playoffs; must be difficult to get back up for October after getting knocked down so hard the two preceding Mays and Junes.
“Getting back to that emotional level where you’re completely engaged and fighting to win every night takes some work,” Marc Staal told The Post after Monday’s 40 victory over the Sharks at the Garden that snipped the Blueshirts’ threegame losing streak. “The first bunch of games we really haven’t had that.
“AV talked at our meeting how our will needed to be stronger and how we needed to get that mentality back,” the alternate captain said, referring to coach Alain Vigneault. “I thought we were much better that way.”
The Rangers were reasonably sharp in front of Antti Raanta, who became the first Rangers goalie since Marcel Paille in 195758 to record a shutout in his first game wearing the Blueshirt. Attention to detail was much better. So was puck support and puck movement.
“We were upset with the way we played in the losses,” Ryan McDonagh said. “We weren’t giving ourselves a chance.
“We played as close to a full game as we have within our structure.”
My guess is that McDonagh, who played the final three games of the Tampa Bay series with a broken foot; Dan Girardi, who played through the conference finals with an MCL sprain and badly bruised foot; and Staal, who played through the entire tournament despite a hairline ankle fracture, are not yet up to speed following the quick summer turnaround.
Well, it isn’t a guess that the Big Three aren’t up to speed, despite better performances against San Jose, only a guess that lingering issues have contributed to their respective slow starts even if Vigneault sought to publicly dispel that notion.
“There is no doubt that the three guys — Marc, Danny and Ryan — were held back in their training regimen over the summer,” the coach said before the game. “But would any of those three use that as an excuse? No … and neither will we.” So much of the Rangers’ game and Vigneault’s system is predicated upon a quick firstpass transfer from the defense to the forwards. The Rangers have amassed skilled defensemen to make plays, not to chip the puck off the glass. It is Point AtoPoint B hockey. And it generates speed.
But those quick transitions had been few and far between before Monday. It had been willynilly. The Rangers had spent too much time scrambling in their own end of the ice, too much time trapped in between in the neutral zone. As such, the Blueshirts had almost looked slow.
Not against the Sharks, however, when the Rangers got out into the open and were able to show off some of their tictactoe game.
“It’s just trying to make the play and communicate well so you can make the next play quickly,” said McDonagh. “Our legs were moving because the puck was moving really well.”
There were isolated trouble spots on Monday, but the Rangers by and large took care of business at both ends. Now they’ve got only 75 games to go before they can try to right the wrongs of the previous two wrenching springtimes.
“You look and it seems so far away,” Staal said. “But that’s no excuse. It’s on us to keep our emotional and compete level up to where it needs to be.”
In other words, this is going to be a long and grinding road. And regardless of the team’s best intentions, there is no guarantee that this halting start (albeit 421) will be followed by the Rangers catching fire
anytime soon.