TAMPA — The numbers belie what the eye is telling you when watching Brad Richards and Rick Nash skate together on the same line.
For even as they have yet to combine for a goal over the three games in which they’ve been united since Nash’s return last Tuesday from Injured Reserve, there appears a comfort level between the pair on the ice that did not exist last season.
“Last year, over the summer after the trade and then during the lockout, there was a lot of talk about how Richie and I were going to play together, and a lot of expectations put on us,” Nash said before the Rangers-Lightning match on Monday night.
“When we did start, we were forcing it, and it didn’t really work. Now, no one has really talking about it, and it’s just kind of come naturally. It doesn’t seem like the pressure is on us to figure each other out, so we’re just going out there playing and letting it happen.”
Nash played the right with Richards in the middle and Marian Gaborik on the left early last season. The trio had an explosive couple of games but struggled mightily on the defensive side of the puck and ultimately were separated. Later in the season after Gaborik had been dealt, Nash and Richards were reunited intermittently by then-coach John Tortorella, but to no good effect.
Richards was on the left with Nash on the right and Derek Stepan in the middle for the first three games before No. 61 went down with his Oct. 8 concussion in San Jose. Since returning from the 17-game absence, Nash has been on the left with Richards in the middle and Ryan Callahan on right wing.
The unit has combined for 31 shots and 60 attempts — including the power play — in three games, with Nash’s PPG off a Callahan feed in Thursday’s 3-2 victory in Dallas the only score the trio has produced.
“We’re obviously looking for pucks to cross the goal line, that’s the bottom line, but there’s definitely a different feel between Rick and myself,” Richards said.
“Before last year there was so much talk about Nash and Richards and how we were supposed to be able to do all this stuff together. Then the season started and I was struggling in my own game, and wound up trying to force everything to him, which is completely counterproductive. That never works when a center tries to force the puck to the wing.”
Richards, of course, spent the final two games of the playoffs in street clothes as a healthy scratch. After escaping an amnesty buyout in the wake of the Blueshirts’ coaching change to Alain Vigneault from John Tortorella, Richards spent much of the summer training in Connecticut with Marty St. Louis, his former Lightning teammate and close friend.
“For any athlete to play at a high level, a lot of it is mental,” said St. Louis, who will be honored before Monday’s match for having reached the 1,000-game milestone for his career. “We all know that [Richards] has the ability, but I don’t think he was in a good place mentally last year. He really wanted to get back to where we know he can be, and the only way to do that was through preparation, and he did that.”
Richards is tied with Callahan for the club lead in goals (six) and with Stepan for the team lead in points (16), even in the midst of a stretch in which he has one point (an assist) in the past six games and eight points (1-7) in the past 15. But he has handled the puck with authority, creating chances for himself and his linemates. He leads the Rangers with 83 shots while fourth among NHL’ forwards with 161 shot attempts.
“I still have to learn about Rick, his talent level alone backs players off, but I also have to continue shooting and holding onto the puck so it all isn’t predictable,” Richards said. “He and I and Cally have to play to our individual strengths and not just look for each other all game.
“If we do that, we’ll make each other better players. And the pucks will start to go in.”