Nash starting to cash
Big Easy looks goal-den
This is Rick Nash’s history, and he is well aware of what might be coming.
The Rangers’ star winger followed up his hat trick Saturday night in Florida with another big goal in Monday night’s 30 win over the Predators at the Garden, the team’s 11th win in the past 12 games. Nash has been open about how streaky he is when it comes to scoring — and the subsequent droughts — and after two goals in his first 17 games of the season, it’s now four goals in the past two games. So that sound you hear? That might be the floodgates starting to creak open. “I think after you score a few goals, you feel better with the puck,” Nash said on Monday night, his team getting Tuesday off before Wednesday night’s marquee Garden match against the firstplace Canadiens. “I went a long stretch there where I was getting frustrated that I didn’t score.”
Nash has gone through these ruts before, and he has learned how to try not to let it affect the other parts of his game. But if Nash hadn’t gotten going in Florida, then his play midway through the second period Monday might have be a lot different. Instead, with the puck on his stick as his team rushed up ice on a 4on1 advantage, Nash headed up the left wing and ripped a shot over Pekka Rinne’s right shoulder for a 10 lead.
“You know, usually you’re looking for a pass,” Nash said about the play. “But with the way I’ve been struggling, I looked up, saw the wide open blocker side —I think he was cheating a little glove [side] — so I couldn’t pass up on that shot.”
In the words of coach Alain Vigneault: “There’s a hole there, and only a goalscorer can pick that hole against an elite goaltender like that.”
It gave Nash six goals in the first 19 games, having missed two games this month after his back locked up on him in practice. The Rangers (1632) continue to win no matter what kind of shape their game is in and no matter whether Nash is scoring, but they are a different team when he plays with this type of confidence. “I’m so happy for him because he’s been working so hard and doing so many good things,” said goalie Henrik Lundqvist, responsible for so many of those wins with his exemplary start to the season. “But obviously as a goal scorer, you want to score goals. I already could tell [Monday] morning in practice, just the way he was shooting the puck and around the net — he’s hungry, and I’m just happy for him.”
Of course, no conversation about Nash’s goal scoring can proceed without mention of his performances in the postseason. That is the time when his streaks go only one way, and it’s the route of disappointment. He had one goal in 12 playoff games in 2013, when John Tortorella’s Blueshirts flamed out in the second round against the Bruins. He then had just three in the 25game run to the Stanley Cup final the next season, and five in 19 games last season, which ended in the conference final.
Nash and the Rangers hope this streak will sustain for a while.
“He deserves it, the way he’s been working and making so many good plays,” Lundqvist said. “Now goals are coming, and it’s good to see.”
According to Forbes Magazine, the Rangers are the most valuable franchise in the NHL, worth $1.2 billion, taking the top spot for the first time since 2004. The Canadiens ($1.18 billion) are second and the Maple Leafs ($1.15 billion) third.