KANATA, Ont. — On the night of March 30, minutes after the Rangers defeated the Canadiens at the Garden for their 50th win of the season, this is what their coach, John Tortorella, said about the achievement:
“Fifty wins doesn’t mean squat,” he said. “You are judged by the playoffs.
“You are measured as a player and as a team by what your team does in the playoffs.”
In that case, and presuming that the sentiment applies equally to the man behind the bench, the 2011-12 Rangers will be measured by what they do tonight facing Game 6 first-round elimination by the Senators and then on Thursday in Game 7 at the Garden, if they can get there.
It is not entirely accurate that winning 51 games, amassing 109 points and finishing first in the Eastern Conference meant “squat.” The people who invest an inordinate amount of time, energy, emotion and money to go to the games — the fans, that is — deserve to be repaid with the honest effort the Rangers provided throughout the year.
But it is true the Rangers will ultimately be evaluated on their performance in the postseason, and the cold truth is that the Blueshirts have not measured up to themselves, their expectations, or the Senators while falling behind 3-2 over the first five games of the series.
The Rangers look like they’re playing at regular-season tempo. They can talk all they want about urgency and increasing their level, but they haven’t done it. The Senators look like they’re desperate to win, that they’ll do anything to win. The Rangers don’t, or at least they haven’t given anyone that impression.
A few words about the NHL’s abdication of its responsibility by codifying Chris Neil’s concussion-inducing blow to Brian Boyle’s head early in Saturday’s Game 5 third period.
Doing so merely reinforces the notion that the NHL remains more invested in protecting an imaginary culture than in protecting its young men in uniform.
Initial contact was made to the head but the head was not the principal point of contact? What?
This is the way general managers want to see the game enforced? You know what that is? That’s old(er) men sending young guys into harm’s way.
But the Rangers can’t get caught up in that, and neither can Tortorella, who is speaking to deaf ears on Sixth Avenue.
The Rangers not only get Carl Hagelin back tonight after having served his three game-suspension for concussing Daniel Alfredsson, the Rangers will also get their first line back when the pace car gets the wheels-up signal.
Even absent Hagelin, though, Tortorella should not have separated Brad Richards and Marian Gaborik the last two games, not with the chemistry the club’s two best offensive players created down the stretch.
Neither Artem Anisimov — nailed to the bench for the final 15:39 Saturday after getting one shift early in the third — nor Derek Stepan — inconsistent at best and invisible at worst — had played close to well enough for Tortorella to have reunited the Gaborik-Anisimov-Stepan line as the coach did after Game 3.
Of course, the Rangers are essentially playing nine forwards and five defensemen, with Stu Bickel getting a sum of five third-period shifts in five games. Brandon Prust has not been a factor. Mike Rupp has barely gotten on.
The Rangers have not scored an even-strength goal in 135:17. They have scored two goals at even-strength in the last 259:30, both scored by Boyle. Ridiculous.
Michael Del Zotto hasn’t been able to spring Gaborik, the Rangers haven’t been able to create through the neutral zone and they haven’t been strong enough on the puck in the areas they dominated during the regular season by being more desperate, by being more hungry.
Then again, that was then, when all that meant was squat.
This is now, when tonight will become the Rangers’ season.