BOARD WITH IT: Anton Stralman is sent flying by the Penguins’ Joe Vitale during the Rangers’ 6-3 loss Sunday night at the Garden. The Blueshirts have gotten off to an 0-2 start in the lockout-shortened season. (Getty Images)
There is no historical precedent for what the Rangers are going through right now, so don’t look backward to try to figure out what is going to happen in the future.
In 1995, the most recent instance of a 48-game schedule, the league was very different, with no three-point game, no Wild or Blue Jackets franchises, larger divisions and substantially more scoring. That year, the Devils won the Stanley Cup after finishing the first 24 games with a record of 9-11-4.
Now that the Rangers have lost the first two games of this 48-game season, taking hope in the Devils’ triumph would be foolhardy. As would be taking their losses to the Bruins and Penguins lightly, as both games were thorough beatings the likes of which were almost non-existent last season, when the Rangers made it to the Eastern Conference Finals.
“You can’t really use the early-in-the-season thing,” Brad Richards said after losing to the Penguins, 6-3, on Sunday in their first game at the revamped Garden.
“The only good thing is, we’re only four points out of the division,” the alternate captain continued, “but it’s going to come quick and you can’t let it snowball.”
There also has been some solace taken in the fact the Rangers started last season 0-1-2 after three games and 3-3-3 after nine. They then finished the first 48 games with a 31-12-5 record, en route to coming up two points short of winning the Presidents’ Trophy.
But they started that season with two games in Stockholm, then had cameras from HBO all over them in the lead-up to the Winter Classic. This season, they had a six-day training camp, which included one day off and no live scrimmage with another team, a possible passed-up benefit, even if it were against their AHL affiliate.
It is a situation different from every one that came before it, the only certainty being that winning cures any ills. And with a day off yesterday as the team prepares for tomorrow’s home game against the Bruins, a win would quell some of the red faces and steaming ears.
“You don’t want to [lose two games in a row] anyway in an 82-game season, but with only 46 games left, it’s got to be corrected quickly,” Richards said. “I don’t think there’s anything out there we can’t correct. Plain and simple, if we want to buy into it, we can all do it, but it’s just when we decide to do it.”
Buying in means the Rangers have to regain some semblance of the identity they’ve established over the past couple years. That starts with limiting penalties, limiting defensive zone lapses, and never allowing themselves to be outplayed physically.
“I think we got away a little bit from the way we were playing last year — the hard-nosed style, in your face,” said captain Ryan Callahan. “I think it starts with that, and it trickles from there into our systems.”
As can be expected, coach John Tortorella has not taken a liking to the way his team has started the season, either. He has at times questioned its battle level, and has been at a loss of words — at least with the media — in explaining such an absence of intensity for a team that had such lofty goals.
Yet when Tortorella was asked on Sunday what aspects of the game he needs to see improvement in, he gave a succinct and apt summary.
“All of them,” Tortorella said, “and that is certainly not being sarcastic.”
* The Rangers offered another “no update” yesterday on the status of forward Chris Kreider, who was plowed over by Brooks Orpik in the waning minutes of Sunday’s loss to the Penguins. Kreider, 21, skated off under his own power but looked shaken.