As season winds up, time to be grinders
IF THE past three weeks represent what we’re going to get from the Rangers the rest of the season, then it will be crossover-and-out in the first round of the playoffs.
Because neither the effort nor execution has been anywhere near good enough over this stretch of nine games, through which the Blueshirts have been limited to two goals or fewer eight times in going 4-4-1 while being outscored 25-17.
“I think this is the first bit of adversity we’ve faced this season,” Rick Nash said after Saturday’s 4-1 defeat to the Canadiens at the Garden, in which his team was outclassed all over the ice by their most likely opening-round playoff opponent. “Everything had been going pretty well for us, but now we’re in a situation where the leadership has to step up and set the example.
“We’ve got to go out and play. It’s on us.”
Coach Alain Vigneault was fuming following the club’s fourth straight loss at home (0-3-1), the last three of which came in regulation to Columbus, Washington and Montreal by an aggregate 15-6. Henrik Lundqvist, very good early, but later victimized on a pair of softies, talked about will. Derek Stepan, who turned in another unacceptable performance in going through his 20th straight game without a goal, talked about getting back to work.
If there is more will, maybe the Rangers will find the way to create an attack and spend some time in the offensive end of the ice, but this horses-for-courses team has been forced onto a muddy track, their signature time-andspace game eliminated by opponents who seem to have it all figured out.
And the Blueshirts’ ability to create neutralzone turnovers that key their transition game has disappeared. Their offense could be sponsored by that West Coast burger chain — you know, In-N-Out.
“We’ve been playing right into our opponents’ game plan,” Nash, who cleared a very low bar as one of the better ones in this one, told The Post. “We’re skating into traffic, we’re turning the puck over and now we’re the ones giving up the two-on-ones and breakaways instead of creating them.
“It’s like we have a half-forecheck. We’re chasing. We’re doing a lot circling. We’re not playing in straight lines and we’re not finishing a lot of checks. We can’t get the puck. And we do get it in, it’s out right away.”
The Rangers all seem to be questioning themselves. There is no flow or rhythm to their game. Snap, crackle and pop are all absent and unaccounted for — most noticeably so at the Garden, where they appear to be skating all at once in quicksand and on shells.
“When we’re on the road, we stress playing a simple game, and we’ve been successful at it,” Nash said. “I almost hate saying it, it’s such an old cliché, but it’s about getting the puck deep, going to get it with a hard forecheck and getting the puck back to our defense.
“When you see all the games from around the league, you see how many goals are scored from around the net on plays that begin with shots from the point. We have to get that mentality.”
The Blueshirts seemed confused on defense, too, and boy, was this a tough one throughout for Brady Skjei, whose unaccountable and careless icing created the faceoff from which the Canadiens scored when Shea Weber’s point shot went in off Adam Clendening for a 1-0 lead at 12:51 of the first.
Of course, that one came in the midst of a stretch in which the Rangers went 9:37 without a shot after Mats Zuccarello’s routine one on Carey Price at 3:37. These stretches of minutes upon minutes without being able to force the opposing netminder to make a save have become routine. A shoemaker could set up shop on Seventh Avenue and flourish given all the time the Blueshirts have spent on their heels.
“We were slow all over the ice, getting beat to pucks and letting them have all the plays they wanted,” Ryan McDonagh said. “It was an easy game for them. We didn’t make it hard on them.”
Actually, as Nash put it, “We made it hard on ourselves.”
So now, in the coach’s words, “a reality check.” And now, at the time of year when the game turns into a grind, the flash-and-dash Rangers need to become grinders. If they are unable to do so, it will be crossover-and-out in Round 1.