Here’s some indirect advice from one Derek to another; from the Yankees’ Jeter to the Rangers’ Stepan, who in another 10 days will be skating on the rink at the Stadium that will cover the portion of the infield on which the shortstop makes his living.
That counsel, unknowingly delivered during the summer of 2011 when Jeter was batting in the .250’s as late as the first week of July, is that Stepan should not look at the scoreboard where statistics are flashed a few stories high.
“I never look,” Jeter said at the time. “I don’t need to be reminded.”
There are four games to go before Stepan skates on the Stadium ice Jan. 26 against the Devils in which the Rangers center has a chance to change the narrative, but the numbers that currently would go on the scoreboard behind the bleachers are enough to make anyone look away: seven goals and 20 assists for 27 points in 49 games.
“Of course it bothers me,” Stepan told The Post before his drought reached 13 games in the Rangers’ 1-0 victory over the Red Wings at the Garden on Thursday. “For sure it weighs on me.”
Sooner or later, the Blueshirts are going to need production from the earnest 23-year-old who led the club in scoring last year when he posted 18 goals and 26 assists for 44 points in the lockout-truncated 48-game season. Of course they will.
But for now, the Rangers are 9-3-1 through the entirety of Stepan’s famine that follows by a few months a 12-game drought with which he opened the season. It helps more than a little bit, of course, that Henrik Lundqvist seems to have regained his powers.
“Goal-scoring can kind of be a fluky thing, so you can go through a stretch where you don’t get one,” Stepan said. “But to have two stretches like this in one season, I’ve never had that before, so yes, I’m obviously aware of it and not happy about it.
“I think I’ve played pretty well other than that, I’ve had good looks for the most part, and I’ve gotten the puck to my linemates [Rick Nash and Chris Kreider],” he said. “But I can’t say that I’ve played well without scoring.”
Maybe it all can be traced to the fact Stepan missed training camp because of a contract stalemate, but the fourth-year pro, who recorded the eighth-most points in the NHL (56 goals, 84 assists, 140 points) over the last three seasons among players age 23 or younger, seems a step or so behind; his anticipation a tick off, his quickness compromised, perhaps by a lack of confidence.
He never has been a player who wins pucks by outmuscling opponents, but one who has thrived through his innate hockey sense. He hasn’t lost that, but he has for the moment misplaced the ability to create and finish.
The Stepan unit is at least nominally the Rangers’ first line, but over the last seven games in which coach Alain Vigneault has kept his top three units intact, Stepan’s line has scored three even-strength goals, the same number as the Derick Brassard-Mats Zuccarello-Benoit Pouliot combination, while the Brad Richards-Carl Hagelin-Ryan Callahan troika has struck six times.
“On that line, Step is usually the low guy [in the defensive zone] and that can also be challenging,” Vigneault said. “On the other hand, players on the top line like to cheat on the offensive side, so he should be able to get some good opportunities.
“One thing I know is that Step is very demanding of himself and wants to improve,” the coach said. “Those are great qualities for a player, who is very young and in my estimation is only going to get better.”
Vigneault had enough faith in Stepan on Thursday to have him on for the final 44.5 seconds beginning with a defensive zone draw. Indeed, Stepan led New York forwards with 19:27 of ice time.
“I think there are things I’m doing well, I’m working hard on playing the right way and living up to the coach’s expectations, which aren’t really any different from the last guy’s expectations,” Stepan said. “But from my own personal expectations, and certainly when it comes to scoring goals, it hasn’t been good enough.”
The scoreboard at Yankee Stadium would indicate that — if he were to make the mistake of looking at it, that is.