Rick makes presence felt as Rangers halt mini-skid
Here’s a question: If Rick Nash doesn’t show up on the scoresheet for the Rangers, can you quantify his contribution?
Here’s the answer: Watch his teammates.
“When Rick’s going, everyone is going,” Chris Kreider told The Post on Monday night after Nash led the Blueshirts, without scoring, to a 40 win over the Sharks, breaking a threegame losing streak.
“When he’s out there crushing people,” Kreider said, “it’s easy.”
Nash managed an assist in this contest — and had a highlight bodycheck on Justin Braun late in the first period — but remains without a goal through the first seven games of the season, while the Rangers (421) play a game of seesaw with upanddown performances to start the year.
With Kreider, they are the two most magnetizing skaters to hop over the boards on any given night, and so often, as they go, so goes the team.
“It’s really a good reflection of our team right now,” coach Alain Vigneault said before the game, referring to Nash and Kreider both being without a goal. “We’re all just a little bit off.”
Even if Kreider didn’t score either, he was flying in this one, a speed demon up the wing that was hardly contained. And he did get a little statistical recognition when his long stretch pass found Jesper Fast for what would be the deathknell goal, making it 30 just 3:47 into the third.
“I’ve been confident in my ability to skate rather than being so quick to get up ice,” Kreider said. “Playing smart rather than just working hard, which is something I’ve gone through stretches in the past, but I think I’ve remedied it after a game, game and a half.”
With those two doing their best to control the tempo of the game, they allowed new backup Antti Raanta to secure a tidy 22save shutout in his Rangers debut, the first goalie to do so in franchise history since Marcel Paille in 1957, per Elias Sports Bureau.
“We have to help our goalies out a lot more than we have in the first couple games,” Nash said. “I think we’re finally understanding that all our offensive chances come from good defense.”
The fact is that things were starting to get a little sticky around the Rangers. With all of their expectations for glory, the threegame losing streak when they scored just two goals was a little unnerving. But Nash would not be a shrinking violet on this night, not with the Sharks (420) on the last game of their fourgame road trip and paddling around the Garden ice, ripe for the taking.
“I always remember when I was captain, that was one of my big parts in Columbus was to lead by example,” Nash said. “Even though I don’t wear a letter on my jersey, I still feel like I’m an older guy and a leader. When you’re not the most vocal guy, you definitely try to lead by example.”
After Marc Staal opened the scoring 10:38 into the first, it seemed like Nash was going to get off the schneid when a Mats Zuccarello powerplay shot went right past his screen, looking like it could have defected off him and past Sharks goalie Martin Jones, making it 20 at 9:28 of the second.
But it stood as Zuccarello’s fourth of the year, Nash saying it didn’t hit him — and laughing, he added, “I’m honest when it comes to that stuff.”
“I thought he had one of his best games since the beginning of the year,” said coach Alain Vigneault, who might have found something by putting Derek Stepan between Nash and Zuccarello. “He had some great chances. The ones that aren’t going in right now are definitely going to go in later.”
Early in the third, Nash had a semibreakaway and just missed the net wide. A couple minutes later, he hit the post. Instead it was Viktor Stalberg who got one to go to finish off the scoring, but Nash’s impact — followed closely by Kreider — was still easily felt.
“It’s urgency,” Nash said. “Good teams don’t let these things slide. They stop them right away. I believe we’re a good team, and we were urgent to turn it around.”