For all intents and purposes, what transpired Saturday night at the Prudential Center was a playoff game – not one in a series, but a single entity that propelled one team forward and pretty well buried the other.
And, because this is how it always seems to be in situations of high anxiety, the bold-faced names rose to the top. In this case, that meant Henrik Lundqvist once again outdueled Martin Brodeur, leading the Rangers to breathtaking 2-0 win in front of a sold-out crowd in Newark.
“We talked before the game and we had to have the same energy and the same mindset that we did last night,” Lundqvist said, referring to the Blueshirts’ rousing 3-1 win in Columbus on Friday, enabling them to leapfrog the Blue Jackets into third place in the Metropolitan Division.
“We’re still fighting for our lives,” he said. “Nothing changed.”
What did change was the name atop the Rangers’ all-time shutouts list, as Lundqvist hung a doughnut – as he has been wont to say – for the 50th time in his career, passing Eddie Giacomin and now holding just about every meaningful goaltending standard for a team that started in 1926, having passed Mike Richter for first on the team’s all-time wins list with Tuesday’s 8-4 win in Ottawa.
“Might as well do them all in one week so I don’t have to talk about it anymore,” said Lundqvist, whose parents flew in from Sweden to watch the game. “It’s a great feeling.”
The Rangers (39-29-4) now have won three in a row, four out of their past five, and are just one point short of the Flyers for second in the division – the same Flyers who handed the first-overall Blues a 4-1 loss on Saturday afternoon. Rather than joy, it was pure relief when Derek Stepan backhanded one into the empty net with 7.8 seconds remaining.
“It was a playoff atmosphere,” said Rick Nash, who scored his third goal in the past three games, this one the lone contested tally, 10:33 into the second period, when Chris Kreider crashed the net and distracted Broduer– or interfered with him, depending on point of view – and Nash one-timed it in from outside the left hash mark, shocking not just Brodeur, but everyone watching.
“There were tough battles,” said Nash, who seemed to still be channeling the energy from his triumphant return to Columbus and now leading the team with 23 goals. “It was a greasy win. Wasn’t the prettiest, but we’ll take it.”
As Lundqvist’s regular-season, head-to-head record against Brodeur went to 30-9-6, the Devils (30-28-13) saw another pile of dirt thrown on to their season’s grave, now terrifyingly close to complete darkness.
After the Red Wings beat the Wild, the Devils went to six points out of the final wild-card spot with just 11 games remaining, resuming Sunday night when they play host to the plummeting Maple Leafs. When Jaromir Jagr was asked whether he thinks the players around him comprise a playoff team, the to-be Hall of Famer demurred.
“I don’t look around, it’s not my job,” said Jagr, again an offensive force, but denied on a first-period breakaway on a brilliant right-pad save from Lundqvist. “My job is to do the best I can for the team. I try to give my 100 percent every night, no matter who is next to me or behind me. To me, it doesn’t matter.”
No, what matters now is just the ramifications of this game. And that is to witness one team’s ascension and the other’s demise.