So the Rangers have wrapped up home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs, everyone in the locker room was speaking of confidence as if it abounds, and, boy, isn’t life jolly?
The reality is that Thursday night at the Garden should have been a wake-up call, a 2-1 win over the league-worst Sabres that was less than two minutes from being an utter embarrassment.
With just 1:42 remaining, the Blueshirts needed Rick Nash to rip a one-timer passed some goalie named Matt Hackett to save face, and now they’ll prepare to play host to either the Flyers or Blue Jackets in the first round next week.
“In a game like tonight, I’m not going to dig too deep in my brain to try and figure it out,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “I’m going to take the two points and move on.”
By getting those two points, and by the Flyers losing 4-2 to the Lightning in Tampa, the Rangers secured second place in the Metropolitan Division, meaning that first-round matchup will start in New York, and could end there, too, if it gets to an ever-anticipated Game 7.
“If we can get home ice, we’d prefer to get it,” Vigneault said before he knew the result of the Flyers’ game. “The higher seed you are, the better off you are.”
The Rangers (45-31-5) spent much of this night dangling over a cliff that could have sent them plummeting with a loss. Without the two points, the possibility of a wild-card spot was still there, meaning a first-round matchup with the Bruins or Penguins.
Yet that was avoided, but by no help from the power play (0-for-4 over 7:57), and no help from the swaths of time when they couldn’t muster a single shot — like the opening 7:32 of the game, as well as the opening 13:40 of the third period.
Luckily for the Blueshirts, the team they were facing was historically bad, as the Sabres (21-50-9) spent the whole of the second period getting outshot 18-1 — and yet that lone shot went in, a tip from Drew Stafford at 9:06 that gave them a 1-0 lead.
“It was definitely a tough one to get going,” said goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who will more than likely get the night off in the regular-season finale Saturday in Montreal, as the game will have no effect on their postseason standing. “The energy wasn’t really there. It felt like they were trying to slow down the game a little bit, but the big thing here is to stay patient.”
The Rangers tied the game with just 31 seconds left in that second period, as Benoit Pouliot got his second goal in as many games, taking his points streak (three goals, four assists) to seven games.
“It’s not always easy, and it’s not always going to come,” Pouliot said, “but we found a way.”
For months, it has seemed as if the Rangers have continued to find ways to win, and when Nash buried a great cross-ice feed from Martin St. Louis, home ice became theirs.
“The focus doesn’t change in the playoffs, the road or at home, but the experience changes,” Lundqvist said. “To play at home is just a great feeling, and to feel the atmosphere and the support, you get goose bumps.”
Now it’s on the Rangers to see if they can return those goose bumps to their fans.