NHL

Newest Rangers key lopsided win

NICE START: New Ranger Ryane Clowe made an immediate impact last night with a pair of goals in a 6-1 win over the Penguins. (NHLI via Getty Images)

Rest assured, it will not be like this tomorrow night in Pittsburgh.

Because Wednesday night in the Garden there was as rosy a hue as could be imagined engulfing a once-dormant Rangers team, as new trade additions ran amok and led the way to a 6-1 win over the first-place Penguins.

Showing up 15 minutes before warm-ups were two of the three pieces returned from Columbus in exchange for Marian Gaborik at yesterday’s trade deadline, center Derick Brassard and defenseman John Moore combining for two goals and three assists. And Ryane Clowe, who slept 30 minutes on a red-eye flight Tuesday night after being obtained for draft picks in a trade with the Sharks, adding his first two goals of the season as well as an assist.

“Throws coaching right out the window, huh?” John Tortorella sniped.

Turns out, it’s not just the sleepless that benefit from trades like this, either. The struggling Brian Boyle managed to get his second goal of the season and add three assists, while Brad Richards also seemed to gain some life and add another two helpers.

All in all, the 18-15-3 Rangers are now tied with both the Islanders and Devils in points, but leapfrogged both and into seventh place in the conference by virtue of more wins than the Devils and one game in hand over the Islanders.

“Just to have a couple new faces in the room, it changes the dynamic in here,” said goalie Henrik Lundqvist, solid in making 26 saves. “On the ice is one thing, but off the ice, it’s going to change too. So hopefully this can help us.”

It will start tomorrow, when they head to Pittsburgh to finish this home-and-home with the Penguins (28-10-0), who played without Sidney Crosby, still nursing a broken upper jaw. The Pens were the ones who had taken all of the early trade-deadline headlines, but they were the ones that came out flat in the second game of a back-to-back and were wiped out by a Rangers team that now looks a lot more like the one that was two wins from the Stanley Cup finals last season.

“We were definitely more in-your-face type of team today,” Lundqivst said. “We didn’t give them a lot of room. A lot of great things.”

It started early, when Brassard showed immense patience on a power play midway through the first, circling and getting the puck to Richards at the point. He fired it, Boyle deflected it in, and up 1-0 things seemed good.

Little did the team know how good they would actually get.

Two minutes later, Ryan McDonagh scored the first even-strength goal for a Rangers’ defenseman since Anton Stralman against the Jets on Feb. 26, a stretch of 17 games. Then Clowe got off the season schneid by putting in a backhand, letting the first-period buzzer sound with the Rangers up 3-0.

“It feels good to get the monkey off the back overall,” Clowe said from under the Broadway Hat. “I don’t know if it was the no sleep, but there was no pressure because you’re just going out there and playing free. Overall, the guys looked pretty loose and it was good.”

Midway through the third, with the Rangers already up 5-1 and Clowe having scored his second of the night — and season — the puck came rolling out to Moore at the point. It seemed implausible that it could happen, but he shot it and somehow it found its way through Marc-Andre Fleury and the fairy tale beginning was complete.

“Funny how it works,” Tortorella said, smiling.