When Artem Anisimov lifted the puck into the gaping Devils’ net to finish off his Rangers’ 3-0 Game 1 win on Monday night, it seemed like validation for a young player whose game has grown substantially as the playoffs have progressed.
As recently as Game 5 of the second-round series against Washington, Anisimov was relegated to fourth-line duty, getting just 4:56 of ice time in that 3-2 Rangers’ win. Since then, he has been moved up in the lineup, most recently paired with Brian Boyle and Ruslan Fedotenko on a line that is made for checking but is not devoid of offense thanks, in large part, to the presence of the 23-year-old Russian.
“It’s important everyone has to step up and continue throughout the playoffs,” is how captain Ryan Callahan put it yesterday when asked about Anisimov, as the Rangers prepare for Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals tonight at the Garden. “He’s a big body and it’s tough to take him off pucks.”
Before the empty-netter, which was Anisimov’s third goal of the playoffs, he was out on the second power-play unit and made a slick backhanded pass to Chris Kreider, who buried it to take a 2-0 lead.
“I mean, he makes a hell of a pass there to Kreider,” coach John Tortorella said. “That’s why he’s been moved up. He’s done some good things away from the puck. A lot of people don’t realize some of the things he does. He’s improved.”
* Tortorella has been hot and cold this postseason when it comes to answering questions about individual players. Sometimes he has freely talked about the ups and downs of a single player, while other times he tightens up and gives one-word answers.
Yesterday, the team was in the midst of a very optional practice, he was asked why he keeps from expounding on individuals.
“This isn’t golf,” he said. “This is a team sport. It has to be. You push as a coach. You push every individual within the team sport to be the best they can be. But you have to combine that within a concept, in a team concept.”
* The Devils think the most important thing to breaking the Rangers’ tight defense is to draw blood first.
“The key against them is to score first,” Ilya Kovalchuk said. “Then they have to change and open up.”
Kovalchuk proposed one way to do that, recalling a time on Monday night when he tried to shoot wide to give Dainius Zubrus a back-door gimme.
“That’s going to work for sure,” Kovalchuk said. “The puck bounced. In the second, one hit [David Clarkson] in the chest, and one went wide. We don’t have to change anything.
“They look like they block a lot of shots because they give a lot of room to our D on top. We have to make better plays.”
Kovalchuk also rejected the idea of trying to jump on the Rangers in order to get them out of their shell.
“No, we have to do what we do,” Kovalchuk said. “We’re successful against good teams on our forecheck. We have to go low to high quicker and get the puck to the net, yes, but the forecheck is the key.”
* Devils coach Peter DeBoer suggested perhaps his team was rusty.
“When I look back at the game last night, I think it was as much our execution or lack of execution,” DeBoer said, “and whether that was the layoff or whatever, but we have to do a better job executing.”
* DeBoer said he thought Brodeur was bumped on Dan Girardi’s opening goal on Monday, and Michael Del Zotto put his hand on the puck on another play.