PITTSBURGH — I don’t think anyone has an idea of how good the Rangers are or how good the Rangers might be. You’d say they sneak up on their opponents except for the noise their skate blades make when chewing up the ice.
The Blueshirts didn’t play their best game even once in the first round yet still took out the Flyers, even if they needed seven games to do it, and by the way, when did it become a hockey crime to win in seven?
Ken Dryden, give back that 1971 Cup you earned by beating the Blackhawks in a spectacular seven-game finals two rounds after needing all seven games to beat Boston in the opening round of the tournament.
Sidney Crosby, your 2009 run to the Cup was unworthy, seeing as it took the Penguins seven full games to wrest the chalice from the defending champion Red Wings.
Yes, it is most certainly true the Blueshirts’ inability to build on leads within playoff series will come back to bite them if they can’t reverse this 12-game trend that dates back to 2009, or as we say in the trade, two John Tortorella firings ago.
But those obsessing over the fact the Rangers didn’t take out Philly in six or five rather than seven can’t see the forest for the trees. The Blueshirts not only won, but overcame the kind of physical, trouble-making team in the Flyers that appeared a difficult match for an Alain Vigneault squad that simply wants to skate, get in on the puck, get off the ice quickly and avoid temptation.
About the Flyers. They weren’t that physical. And they really weren’t so cheap, either. It’s time for Philadelphia — now going on 40 years without a Cup — to downplay the connection to the Broad Street Bullies. They don’t play that way. Nobody plays that way anymore. It is impossible.
But there is Mr. Snider’s organization playing pregame clips on the scoreboard from the ’70s with the same sad hankering for the old days as the Flyers display when they ask Lauren Hart, the woman who truly does set the standard for North American pro sports’ Anthem singers, to perform “God Bless America” as part of a duet with the apparition of the late Kate Smith.
Seriously, Ms. Smith’s “record” in the playoffs these last 39 years, posthumous or otherwise, isn’t all that much better than Roman Cechmanek’s.
It would be folly to suggest Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin might provide a better match for the Rangers than, say, Claude Giroux and Wayne Simmonds, except the Blueshirts do seem to play their best hockey against opponents that want to try and skate with them.
Crosby did not score a goal in the Penguins’ six-game survival test against the Blue Jackets. Possession numbers aside, No. 87 looked bad enough he was actually booed by Pittsburghers whose team would probably be in Kansas City if the lottery balls hadn’t bounced Mario Lemieux’s way in 2005.
There indeed has been speculation that Crosby was playing with some malady, but if so, it was likely the Brandon Dubinsky flu.
If the Rangers are pleased to have extricated themselves from the Flyers, the Penguins must be giddy to know they are no longer playing against a club like Columbus that will try to club them into submission.
Clearly the Penguins will put their top-end talent in Crosby and Malkin (and James Neal, Chris Kunitz and Kris Letang) up against anyone’s. But it will be fascinating to see what the Derick Brassard-Mats Zuccarello-Benoit Pouliot line can accomplish with a little bit of room with which to operate.
There’s no telling — literally — whether Chris Kreider could rejoin the Rangers as the series progresses, but his return from hand surgery would represent an important addition of speed, size and attitude into the lineup.
The Rangers are a work in progress. Their play doesn’t merit raves. If their games were concerts, the band might not be invited back on stage for an encore. But they win. They are methodical and intentionally understated; vanilla in a world of rocky road. Their work ethic, attention to detail and belief in themselves and their coaching staff is beyond reproach.
The Blueshirts won’t get by on the same game they played against the Flyers. The power play alone would be grounds for elimination. But this match should allow the Rangers to strut their stuff. Philly’s nonsense did not intimidate them. Pittsburgh’s talent won’t, either. New York will have a plan.
The Rangers will be better in Round Two. Looser, more confident. And they will be better than the Penguins.