Thursday’s 4-2 victory over the Wild at the Garden represented the type of forceful, poised performance that could give management more reason than just blind faith to believe in the Rangers.
Regardless of the underwhelming nature of the Blueshirts’ season, it is all relative. When the sun rose Friday, the Rangers were seventh overall in the NHL. Years ago, that would have been cause for celebration. Why, some presidential candidates might even call that a victory.
But not the Rangers; not now. We’ve been through this over and over and over again. There is only one summit left for the Blueshirts to reach. Everything the team and the organization does is viewed through that prism.
But this should not and cannot materially change general manager Jeff Gorton’s mandate to protect the future rather than obsess over the present as the Feb. 29 trade deadline looms.
The first-year GM is on the spot. It won’t be easy for Gorton — who has no track record — to resist quick-fix options that are sure to present themselves. Winnipeg has been scouting the Rangers for a while, and yes indeed, Andrew Ladd would sure look good wearing the Blueshirt for the stretch run and into the playoffs.
Surely the Jets would be willing to take some combination of J.T. Miller, Pavel Buchnevich, a first-rounder and Dylan McIlrath off Broadway in return for the high-end rental property.
But even more surely, anyone going after what is left of the Blueshirts’ young core would have to be told by Gorton that they jest and should not waste their time.
This is the last ride for this core of Rangers that has been intact for the last three playoff runs, with much of the nucleus here for the first trip to the conference final in 2012. What the Blueshirts are trying to do here is unprecedented.
For this is only the second team to win as many as eight playoff series over four years without winning the Stanley Cup since the NHL adopted the current format that features four rounds of best-of-seven in 1987.
The other was Boston, which won nine rounds from 1988 through 1991, losing twice in the Cup final to Edmonton, and eight rounds in the overlapping 1989-1992 time frame.
And when that run could not be extended, when the end came for the Bruins, they died bloody, able to win merely two rounds over the next 15 playoff seasons while missing the tournament five times.
The fabric of this team remains strong even if it has been a struggle pretty much from Day 1. This was a night on which the whole thing could have gone kablooey once the Rangers fell behind 2-0 just 7:57 into the match.
But no. The Rangers owned the rest of the game, dominating in possession time beginning with a strong down-low shift from the Kevin Hayes unit a minute or so after the Wild got their second goal. In fact, after being outshot through the opening 9:40, the Rangers outshot Minnesota 25-5 past the midway point of the third while out-attempting the skidding visitors — 1-8-1 in their last 10 — 45-16 at even-strength through the first two periods.
Other than Miller’s ascension into the stratosphere, Ryan McDonagh’s re-emergence as a dominant force has been the Rangers’ most encouraging sign through their 9-6-1 rebound from the holiday-season crash. The captain did not have a good one in New Jersey on Tuesday, but No. 27 has more and more resembled the dynamic Norris contender he was two seasons ago.
It was McDonagh who almost willed himself to score the goal that brought the Rangers within 2-1 at 3:15 of the second period, just 1:20 before Miller tied it with his fourth goal in three games, seventh in six and eighth in the last eight matches.
“Our group sticks with it. We’re committed to playing the right way,” Derek Stepan said. “But you need big-time plays and the captain makes one.”
Let no one be fooled. McDonagh is the greatest offensive weapon from the blue line the Rangers have had since Brian Leetch’s heyday. As such, if Keith Yandle’s pending unrestricted free agency isn’t reason enough for Gorton to auction No. 93, McDonagh’s re-emergence adds another layer of protection against such a trade.
Gorton has no choice but to replenish the feeder system by moving Yandle. The Blueshirts cannot afford to allow Yandle to walk away for free.
Such a trade would not signal a loss of faith in the Rangers. Selling off the nucleus as so many spare parts would represent that.
And that is not going to happen, not with the Blueshirts seventh overall.