Rivalry games always mean more to the disenfranchised ne’er do wells, which is to say that the Rangers’ primary challenge at Nassau Coliseum tonight will be to at least match, if not supersede, the Islanders’ hunger and desperation in the opener of this home-and-home Battle of New York that concludes at the Garden tomorrow night.
“The Islanders definitely enjoy playing the underdog card, so I think we have to have an arrogant attitude where we have a chip on our shoulder in these games,” Sean Avery told The Post following yesterday’s practice. “We have to have a swagger, and I don’t mean just against the Islanders, but for Ottawa on Sunday, and pretty much straight through.
“Look at the Jets. They prepare for every game and start every game with the attitude that they’re the greatest team to ever walk on a football field. I don’t see a problem with that if you have a work ethic, which we do.”
The Rangers have yielded the opening goal to the Islanders in five of their last seven meetings, three times within the first 4:25, and all within the first 13 minutes, including the 6-4 defeat at the Coliseum on Oct. 11 in which Blake Comeau scored at 12:49.
The Blueshirts did hold a 4-3 lead late in the third before the Islanders scored on both ends of a two-man power play advantage and then added an empty-netter, but the tone and tempo were established early by the aggressive forechecking of the home team that had the visitors pinned in disarray.
“I don’t think we matched their intensity right out of the gate in the last one there where they came really hard at us, and that’s what we have to change,” Ryan Callahan told The Post. “We want them to have to worry about us, not us worrying about them.
“It’s about getting our forecheck going, getting the puck in deep and forcing them to defend against us, not the other way around. It’s about how we prepare and how we play, not about how the Islanders play.”
Avery, who has been a force the last week with an increase in time (coach John Tortorella would say the added ice came because of No. 16’s improved work after being relegated to the fourth line, but as always that’s a chicken-and-egg thing), will open tonight on a unit with Marian Gaborik and Erik Christensen.
“Sean has played well and others haven’t,” said Tortorella, whose team has scored 10 goals in the last five games. “We’re still looking for a more consistent attack, so we’ll see how it goes with Sean, who deserves to be there, and see if some other guys can shake off the cobwebs.”
Avery, who cited the “double-edged sword” aspect of opportunity and responsibility of playing up with Gaborik, has three assists in 18 games since scoring his lone goal on Oct. 18. Gaborik, over both the flu and strep throat, has one goal in his last six games. Christensen, who also has bounced around in the lineup, has one point (0-1) in his last nine.