WASHINGTON — Rick Nash has been here before, answered these questions.
But there seems to be a different tenor in his voice at this point in his career, a calm acknowledgment all the talk of doing good things means very little if he continues not to score.
Which no one on his team could do in a 1-0 Game 3 loss to the Capitals on Monday night at the Verizon Center, going down in the best-of-seven, second-round series, 2-1.
“Yeah, I felt good,” he said with a sigh, “but it’s still frustrating. Your team doesn’t put up any offense and you’re expected to score, it’s definitely a frustrating time.”
Nash led the Rangers with 42 goals this regular season, but is still stuck on one through the first eight games of these playoffs. That lone tally came with five seconds left in a 4-3 loss to the Penguins in Game 2.
“You’re not getting the bounces or the luck that was happening earlier,” Nash, 30, said. “It’s frustrating. I have to work harder and be better.”
It’s hard to imagine how much better Nash can play a game without actually scoring. He was a physical presence throughout, once plastering Brooks Orpik behind the Washington net a minute into the third period.
He also had a handful of great scoring chances, one 3:30 into the first when he took a slick pass from Ryan McDonagh and got a hard shot on Braden Holtby, who got just enough of his glove on it to send it wide. In a game that was determined by a fluke goal from Jay Beagle, that would have changed the complexion from the start.
Nash was also getting to the front of the net, having a chip shot from a loose-puck scramble just miss the net with six minutes left in the second.
“At the end of the day,” McDonagh said, “you’ve got to put it home and we didn’t get one.”
Of course, there is history following Nash around that doesn’t make this load on his shoulders any lighter. He scored just three times in 25 postseason games last season, as the Rangers lost to the Kings in a five-game Stanley Cup final. He has been forthright about the fact his previous concussion was limiting his desire to go to the hard areas of the ice and take some physical punishment.
The playoff run before that, in his first go-around on Broadway, he had one goal in 12 games en route to a second-round ouster by the Bruins.
At the very least, he fully understands how the game changes in the playoffs. He is going full bore now, and is working hard to help his team win. But there is no better way for him to do that than on the score sheet.
“It was a tight-checking game,” Nash said. “It’s a tough way to lose.”