Alain Vigneault said on Tuesday he still is trying to sort out what he has on his roster, so if that’s the way the coach still feels it is surely no surprise that pretty much everyone is trying to sort out exactly who the Rangers are five weeks into the season.
Except, that is, for the players themselves, who apparently have a pretty good grasp of their own DNA.
“I think our group feels pretty confident that when we play the right way, don’t turn the puck over and use our speed, we can play with and beat anybody,” Ryan McDonagh said after the Blueshirts put a 5-1 licking on the Penguins Wednesday night at the Garden. “When we play to our strengths, we’re a good team.”
The Blueshirts reached the 15-game mark under Vigneault with the victory over the conference-leading Penguins, which is surely a milepost by which one can stop referring to the man behind the bench as his club’s “new” coach, isn’t it?
Training camp might have been a self-inflicted counter-productive exercise but Vigneault has had nearly two months to evaluate the Rangers’ personnel since the team convened in September. The “I don’t know them yet” card the coach likes to drop had gotten a bit old.
Because the athletes in front of him every night represent the cards he has been dealt. The loss of Rick Nash for 12 full games and two periods of a 13th has thrown a joker into the mix, no doubt about that, but the Rangers are hardly the first team to lose their most important skater for the long-term.
Nash, who has been examined by Michigan-based concussion specialist, Dr. Jeffrey Scott Kutcher, remains sidelined for an indefinite period of time. The Post has learned the winger has skated on his own periodically at the club’s training facility, but there is no expectation of an imminent return from the concussion he sustained in San Jose on Oct. 8.
So the Rangers proceed without Nash for, you would have to believe, at least another two-to-three weeks on a best-case scenario. If calling Vigneault new has gotten old, so has citing the absence of No. 61 for the team’s halting 7-8-0 start.
Wednesday was time for the Blueshirts to declare themselves as more than a second- or third-tier team capable of beating similarly flawed teams but unable to beat teams on the NHL’s highest rungs.
Which indeed is just what they did against the Penguins once Henrik Lundqvist, who has regained all of his powers after obviously bathing in a tub full of liquid Kryptonite at one of his team’s early stops along the way (Banff, perhaps?), sparkled through the first 10 minutes while his teammates got their sea legs under them.
The Rangers consistently thereafter were able to clear their end, sweep through the neutral zone, pitch pucks behind the Pittsburgh defense and then get to them first. The Blueshirts looked as quick as they have all year.
“I think our speed is definitely one of our major assets,” said McDonagh, who opened the scoring by drilling a left circle wrist shot past Marc-Andre Fleury at 18:08 of the first, 1:05 before Derek Stepan doubled the lead. “If we keep it simple, we give ourselves the best chance to win.”
Chris Kreider’s legs have brought a dramatic difference in pace to the team. Ryan Callahan’s return has brought a greater forecheck presence. Obviously identifying characteristics don’t jump out at you, but the Blueshirts have won four of their last five, and they do keep the puck out of their net, surrendering two goals or fewer in eight straight and only a sum of 16 in their last 10 matches.
King them, you might say.
“Hank was really big holding us in early, but he seems to do that every night for us,” said Callahan, who got a goal on a neat deflection. “This one definitely builds confidence for us and confidence is such an important part of this game.
“We’ve got a good group in here. If we stick to our game plan we can beat anybody.”
The Rangers meet the Blue Jackets in Columbus on Thursday in a cross-pollination game. Wednesday’s seemed like a playoff game for the Rangers. Come to think of it, the way pucks were going in against Fleury, it seemed like a playoff game for the Penguins, too.