The Rangers talk about getting back to what they are, but the essential issue is that nobody knows what that means this time around.
Everyone knew they would be different. Everyone understood they’d be more top heavy and more dependent on talent in the aftermath of the trade in which Rick Nash came to New York and a handful of character assets departed either in that deal or via free agency.
In large measure, the Rangers were remade for Nash.
But now Nash is gone for an indefinite period of time, and the team is sinking without him, having a scored a total of three goals — one by a forward, Ryan Callahan on the power play — in going 0-2-1 in No. 61’s absence.
Nash’s injury is surely just a part of the game — and certainly as administered by the NHL Department of Player Safety — but the hole it has created is more significant than the holes created by the off-season departures of Brandon Prust, Brandon Dubinsky, Ruslan Fedotenko, Artem Anisimov and John Mitchell.
Because those guys were on last year’s team … that didn’t win. And it is past time to stow last year into history.
The Rangers recognize both the urgency of the moment and the need to remain calm in the face of the brewing storm as the Jets come to the Garden tonight for the first of four straight at home. These may be colliding concepts, but the Rangers can’t get ahead of themselves here, can’t concern themselves with the big picture.
“We don’t want to overthink this,” Henrik Lundqvist told The Post yesterday following a post-practice meeting, at which coach John Tortorella told his team not to panic in a message that may well also have included some colorful words about the way the team went about its business in the 50-minute work session. “I just want to focus on the next game.
“You don’t want to react the wrong way because it’s a 48-game season. That’s still a lot of hockey. We have to stay positive and believe in ourselves. But we also all realize that it’s not just going to happen because we expect it to happen.”
The big picture is for management and for us. There are questions whether this team’s square pegs can fit into the current round holes, and there are questions whether this team’s personnel is currently equipped to play the style Tortorella demands.
One thing is clear, though, and it is as clear as Tortorella’s default mode under which Marian Gaborik is too readily benched and Chris Kreider is too readily demoted — the coach isn’t adapting his core beliefs.
“I don’t think we’re playing the right way consistently enough,” Tortorella said. “We can’t think about offense; we have to think about how much stiffer we need to be.
“We can’t cheat our way out of it.”
Kreider remains on the roster, but it’s anybody’s guess why, given Tortorella’s obvious belief the winger isn’t ready for prime time. It took merely one period for him on Saturday in Montreal to fall behind Christian Thomas on the depth chart.
Thomas, who got 1:35 of power-play time and 12:46 overall as compared to Kreider’s 0:06 and 10:09, respectively, was returned to the Whale yesterday following his NHL debut, while No. 20 is likely to be scratched tonight in favor of both Stu Bickel and Brandon Mashinter as Darroll Powe rejoins the lineup.
If Bickel and Mashinter — neither of whom, by the way, got so much as a single shift on Saturday against Max Pacioretty after the Montreal winger plowed Ryan McDonagh face first into the glass — get regular turns tonight, that can be interpreted as an attempt by the coach to re-inject a sandpaper effect into the lineup.
“We have to be confident and arrogant,” Marc Staal said. “We have to go out there with a swagger, like we’re not going to lose.
“We have to get back to doing what we do.”
Fair enough, but that begs the question of what that is, exactly, for a team rebuilt around Nash when Nash isn’t in the lineup.