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The Rangers tell you they will pay the price, the Rangers prove to you that they will pay the price, and now, the Rangers have paid the price for the necessarily reckless and relentless way they sacrifice their bodies in order to win hockey games.
It doesn’t get much more expensive than this and it doesn’t get much more devastating than this. The Rangers will first attempt to clinch a playoff spot and then attempt to do damage in the tournament without Ryan Callahan, who will be sidelined indefinitely with the broken right leg he sustained at the Garden on Monday night blocking a Zdeno Chara shot with 1:45 to go and his team protecting a one-goal lead in what became an emotional 5-3 victory over the Bruins.
This isn’t simply about the loss of the team’s spiritual leader, though there is that. This isn’t simply about the loss of the athlete who personifies the Black-and-Blueshirt mentality that has defined this band of blue-blooded brothers, though there is that, too.
This, rather, is about losing the team’s best and most reliable forward, and one of its three most valuable players — Henrik Lundqvist and Marc Staal complete the trio — on the cusp of the playoffs.
This is about trying to fill the 19:54 of ice Callahan receives a night as the first-line right wing, on the first power play unit and on the penalty kill. This is about attempting to replace the Little Engine That Does . . . and Does . . . and Does every single night.
“There’s no comfort in the loss of Ryan Callahan,” coach John Tortorella said yesterday in confirming the news, oh boy. “There’s nothing good about this, but we have to try and turn this into something that will help team in crunch time.
“Maybe it can be galvanizing. We have to figure out some way to make it work.”
Callahan, who has 48 points (23-25) in 60 games, missed 19 matches earlier the season after sustaining a broken right hand — what else? — blocking a shot in Pittsburgh on Dec. 15, and the Rangers managed to survive just as they have managed to survive an inordinate amount of injuries this season.
But this isn’t about survival. This is about success. And the Rangers will try to succeed at the most difficult time of the year without the one player you know they can depend on for a big play at a big moment, like the one he made on Monday when he spun a brilliant, cross-ice pass to Brandon Dubinsky for the tying goal against Boston.
“He plays in every situation, he does all the little things and big things,” said Chris Drury, who may be able to return from the left knee surgery that has sidelined him since Feb. 3 as early as Saturday in the regular-season finale against New Jersey or in Game 1 of the playoffs next week if the Rangers take care of business. “You can’t say enough good things about him.”
For whatever reason, the Rangers are going to move the recently scratched defenseman Matt Gilroy up to right wing for tomorrow’s game against Atlanta. It’s ridiculous. Who cares if he played forward before he went to Boston University? The fact is Gilroy has played fewer than five shifts up front in the NHL. He’ll be no more than a placeholder tomorrow, likely for Drury.
Tortorella launched a pre-emptive broadside yesterday against those who would question the Rangers’ style.
“I don’t want to hear any [stuff] around here about are we blocking shots the wrong way, or is somebody hitting Henrik too hard — yes, I’m going there — or this, that and the other thing,” he said, for some reason or another looking in our direction as he spoke. “We’re going to play the way we play.”
Of course the Rangers are going to continue to play that way. They’re all in. That’s who they are. This identity hasn’t been imposed on them by the coach, it’s been embraced by the team. There are no fingers to point here after Callahan’s injury. There is no one to blame.
There is, though, statistical evidence that a huge total of blocked shots is not endemic to success, for three of the five team leaders in that category — with the Islanders first — are out of the playoffs while Presidents’ Trophy winner Vancouver is 25th overall in that category and the gold-standard Red Wings rank 29th.
The Blackhawks were 17th last year before winning the Cup. The Red Wings were 30th. And the Panthers, Islanders and Oilers — three of the league’s worst teams, ranked 1-2-4, respectively.
What this tells you is that it helps to have the puck.
The Rangers block pucks. They block pucks with their skates, their hands, their bodies. They are fearless. They will pay any price. They will bear any burden.
Now they face the burden of trying to go forward without their best forward.