SUNRISE, Fla. — It’s only natural that this becomes a moment of reflection, one in which the noise surrounding the Rangers can dim and there at least can be a partial understanding of what has transpired, and what might in the future.
Tuesday night was New Year’s Eve at the BB&T Center, and the Blueshirts were playing game No. 41 of this confounding season, the halfway mark memorialized with a 2-1 shootout win over the Panthers. It was a game the Rangers got pretty well run out of the building at five-on-five, and the positive that they took with them out into the dank Florida evening in anticipation of 2014 was muddied with perspective.
“We’re not good enough to rely on talent because we haven’t shown we can score at will, like some teams do,” said Brad Richards, the only player from either team to score in the skills competition. “So it has to be structure, it has to be a team game, four lines. When we rely on that, and stay with that, we usually give ourselves a good chance to win.”
It’s almost as if Richards was damning with faint praise, but with all of his previous inconsistencies, he understands the fragile mental line that both the individual and the group walk in this league. Which made it more important that goalie Henrik Lundqvist won consecutive games for the first time since Halloween, and that it was not just Richards who had some chances, but Rick Nash and Derek Stepan who played well and assisted on Dan Girardi’s game-tying goal with 2:10 remaining in regulation.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not sitting here saying everything is rosy,” Richards said. “We want a lot more offense, hopefully in the second half that kicks in. But it’s a lot different feeling sometimes. It’s hard to explain.”
The Rangers’ record of 20-19-2 is not hard to explain, and coach Alain Vigneault may have been asked for some retrospection, but he was quick and dour in his response.
“We’re one game above .500,” Vigneault said. “We need to get better.”
Things might have been a lot different if Girardi didn’t atone for a horrid turnover in the second period that led to Brad Boyes’ go-ahead goal.
“It was disappointing that one bad play can kind of ruin a game for the team and yourself,” Girardi said. “I’m just glad I could put one in there and kind of redeem myself a little bit.”
The Rangers were also back at full strength on their back end, getting Marc Staal back after he missed the past 10 games following a concussion, along with Anton Stralman, who returned after missing Sunday’s 4-3 win over the Lightning with a left wrist injury.
Vigneault thought depth would help him create some more offense while at even strength, but exactly the opposite happened.
“Five-on-five, I don’t think we’re creating near as much as we’re going to need coming down the stretch,” said Richards, who finishes the first half with 27 points, one point behind Mats Zuccarello for the team lead. “But compared to three weeks ago, what we were trying to do and get more chances and cut down on stuff, we’re doing a lot better job.”
So maybe they’re a better team than they were three weeks ago. But maybe this juncture is nothing but an artificial signpost, the upcoming back-to-back in Pittsburgh and Toronto starting Friday the next step for a team doing little more than treading water.
“You’ve seen what it can be,” Richards said. “I’d be lying if I said I know exactly what it is.”