RALEIGH, N.C. — They have done the required in holding serve at the Garden to take a 2-0 lead in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, no more than that. But wait a second, the Rangers have done a lot more than that.
In going toe-to-toe with the Hurricanes in the opening set at the Garden, these Blueshirts have demonstrated that they have the right stuff for the playoffs. This is no white-gloves operation. The Rangers have transformed themselves. They can get down and dirty with the best of them and most certainly do at times.
Their next task is to lay down the hammer on the Canes in Game 3 here Thursday, it is to step on their metaphorical throat and not let them up for a moment, not allow the NHL’s third-best team to gain hope.
In 2012, the Rangers beat the Capitals in a triple overtime of Game 3 in Washington that should have given the club momentum. It did not. The Blueshirts came out flat in Game 4, were beaten, and were dragged into a enervating seven-game series. If this is going to be the Rangers’ time, this is as good a time as any for the club to put their stamp on it.
“I think you build confidence during the regular season, you build that foundation to have the belief that no matter what the situation is in the game we’re not out of it, we have the ability to get back in the game and fight to the very last second,” Barclay Goodrow said Wednesday in the wake of his team’s Game 2, 4-3 double-overtime victory. “I don’t know that necessarily needs to be renewed in the playoffs.
“I don’t think our confidence has ever wavered throughout the season. You build it through the season. Nothing is going to change.”
The Rangers got stronger as Tuesday’s 87-minute 24-second marathon evolved. They were quicker to the puck, stronger on the battles and were able to get to the net with more frequency. There is room for improvement in defending through the neutral zone, where Carolina has made the 1-3-1 into a half pound of Lacey Swiss and there’s a need for some forecheck containment to at least slow down the Canes, who always operate at one speed.
The Rangers got stronger even as they played with 11 forwards after the 17:27 mark of the second period that marked the end of Matt Rempe’s fifth and final shift. If you do the math, that equals to the final 49:57 of the match. Once upon a time, Petr Klima had been benched for the Oilers all but one shift in the three overtimes of Game 1 of the 1990 final against Boston. He got on again and scored at 15:13 — after getting one shift the previous 55 minutes. Maybe that would have been Rempe had the game gone on into the wee hours.
It is not ideal to cut down to 11 in a playoff game, but Carolina’s Max Comtois got one 32-second shift after the second period while Stefan Noesen got on for 2:09 after the midway mark of the second period and Jesperi Kotkaniemi got just 3:38 over the final 48 minutes.
The Blueshirts pulled it off by mixing and matching among their contracted bottom-five with head coach Peter Laviolette orchestrating the bench, calling for quick shifts. Alex Wenneberg, for example, had 10 shifts in the third period for an average of 25 seconds per. Goodrow averaged 23 seconds on his eight shifts in the third mixing in among Jimmy Vesey, Will Cuylle, Wennberg and Kaapo Kakko, the Fin only getting a total of 5:00 through the first two periods and 11:25 for the game.
Rempe did not get a third-period shift in Game 4 against the Caps or in Game 1 against Carolina. But his minutes — 38:11, total in the playoffs — come with value. He’s like Cheers. Everyone knows his name. The Rangers have been working with a shortened bench for a while now and have become adept at it. They have also won 15 straight games with Rempe in the lineup and are 20-2-1 with him overall.
Still, Tuesday may have taken a toll. The Rangers may feel that is not feasible to start with a shortened bench and that, 48 hours later, fresh legs are needed, fresher even than Rempe’s should be.
“I’m making sure that we’re going into Carolina with a lineup that we want,” Laviolette said. “I understand the question [about Rempe,] but I feel [cutting the bench] happens all the time in playoffs when you come down to it.
“Regardless of minutes, it’s about winning that hockey game.”
Meanwhile, Kelly Sutherland should not be allowed to officiate another Rangers game in the playoffs. He should be suspended without pay. The disrespect the referee showed Rempe by wagging a couple of fingers in the vicinity of No. 73’s face while lecturing him after the first-period incident in which he had been knocked down by Jack Drury after perhaps backing into netminder Freddie Andersen was a disgrace.
Sutherland looked like an unhinged father berating a teen who missed curfew with his daughter on prom night. Rempe smiled. The referee is supposed to be the one who is the adult here. He shouldn’t be allowed near the Rangers the rest of the way.
