This was less about the actual play of Keith Yandle as it was about the power of his acquisition.
For the newest Rangers defenseman made his Blueshirts debut in Monday night’s 4-1 triumph over the first-overall Predators at the Garden, and the impact of the win-now trade reverberated well past the final buzzer.
“It’s the great thing about what we’ve done here before the trade deadline,” captain Ryan McDonagh said. “We set ourselves up to hopefully make the playoffs, go into the playoffs hoping to do some damage and make something special out of it. It’s great to see management want to improve our team that way.”
Yandle came over from a Coyotes team that is kindly described as rebuilding, and he was swept up in a whirlwind couple of days, watching as first- and second-round picks, along with defenseman John Moore and stud prospect Anthony Duclair, went to Arizona to bring Yandle’s skill and speed back to Broadway.
“In Arizona, you kind of fly under the radar a little bit,” said Yandle, who paired most of the night with Kevin Klein and mixed some expected hesitation with some bright spots over his 19:41. “Here, it’s MSG — you can’t hide from the lights here. It’s going to be fun.”
If they’re all like this, how can it not be?
The Rangers (39-17-6) clamped down on the Predators (41-15-7) from the get-go, earning the two points to tie the Islanders in points atop the Metropolitan Division while usurping first place by virtue of their two games in hand.
Coach Alain Vigneault called it “one of our more complete games in a while,” which is saying a lot, considering the Blueshirts are 10-2-2 without franchise cornerstone goalie Henrik Lundqvist, still recovering from the vascular injury in his neck. Yet his understudy, Cam Talbot, played arguably his best game of this stretch — getting 13 of the 14 starts in Lundqvist’s absence — making 25 saves, 10 in the final 20 minutes.
“It’s nice to know that they have faith in me to not go out and look for another guy,” Talbot said, referring to the verbal vote of confidence he received from general manager Glen Sather before the game — as well as in practice, with Sather choosing not to shop for a more proven goalie while Lundqvist remains out another two weeks or so.
“I’m just going to try to do my best not to let them down,” Talbot said, “until Hank is ready to go.”
The Blueshirts quickly took the lead when Marc Staal scored off the rush 6:36 into the first, and doubled up when Chris Kreider tapped in a great cross-ice feed from Mats Zuccarello 4:14 into the second for a 2-0 lead.
Zuccarello had just signed a four-year, $18 million deal, and played like a wrecking ball while collecting two assists.
“We get the two points, I get to stay four more years — this day couldn’t get much better,” he said.
The Predators cut the lead to 2-1 when Yandle was a little soft on Taylor Beck, who found Matt Cullen open in front of the net late in the second. But that was answered by a rebound goal from Dominic Moore 5:51 into the third, followed by an empty-netter from Rick Nash — his 38th of the season — to put a bow on it.
“It was awesome,” Yandle said. “I had a little bit of butterflies, and I was nervous a little bit just being on a new team, but the crowd did a great job of welcoming me.”
Newly acquired forward Jimmy Sheppard took warm-ups but did not play after traveling so much over the past two days. It’s all part of Sather’s plan to make a run for the Stanley Cup right now, with no hesitation. And that’s a message the guys in the locker room understand.
“That was our expectation anyways, to go in and win,” Staal said. “A day like today, it makes it exciting. You get a talent like [Yandle], going down the stretch and in the playoffs, I think everyone gets excited to go into the playoffs and try to make a run.”