The Lightning (inset) got to celebrate a 4-3 win. (Getty Images)
Ready or not, there came Mats Zuccarello in his first NHL game on a third-round shootout try he needed to bury in order to keep the Rangers alive.
He was ready, the 23-year-old Norwegian rookie North American pro was, beating Tampa Bay netminder Dan Ellis off a freeze-frame move and deke that made Michael Nylander seem like a whirling dervish.
“I was pretty nervous but I said [to myself] I have to score on this because I might not get a chance like that again,” Zuccarello said. “So I was pretty happy.”
It’s not immaterial that the Rangers were ultimately beaten 4-3 by the Lightning when Ryan Malone converted in the bottom of the 11th following eight straight Henrik Lundqvist stops to prevail 3-2 in the skills competition, not when the loss of a point could become critical down the stretch.
But the Rangers grinded per usual, and they rallied after trailing 3-2 going into the third to mark the sixth time in 14 games they’d picked up at least one point (4-8-2) when trailing after 40 minutes of play.
And they may have found an NHL-ready talent in Zuccarello, who stepped in for Marian Gaborik (groin) on the first line with center Derek Stepan and Brandon Dubinsky and never seemed out of place in getting 17:52 from head coach John Tortorella, and in all conceivable situations.
“It was a mindset I built myself up to,” said Tortorella, who used Zuccarello on the power play, in the four-on-four overtime and on the shootout. “We didn’t have Gabby, Ryan Callahan is out, Michael Del Zotto [flu] was out. [Zuccarello] has some skill and so I was going to play him.”
Zuccarello was returned immediately following the match both for cap purposes ($1.75M charge, including bonuses) and so he can play for the AHL Whale on Sunday. It remains to be seen if the diminutive winger will be recalled for Monday’s Garden match against the Islanders.
“He’s an interesting cat, isn’t he?” Tortorella asked rhetorically. “You see his creativity. You see his skill. I try to temper myself, because you never know, but give the kid high marks.”
The Rangers controlled the pace and the puck for the final 20 minutes, becoming stronger as the match evolved. They yielded a pair of first-period goals off horrid turnovers committed by Michal Rozsival and Dan Girardi, got a pair 12 seconds apart from Ruslan Fedotenko and Alex Frolov, fell behind late in the second and then squared it at 11:18 of the third off a spectacular goal from the left doorstep by Stepan.
“We kept tilting the ice on them,” said Stepan, whose goal was his 10th. “When we work it down low, that’s where we have our success as a team.
“We slowly tilted the ice, slowly tilted the ice and even though there’s a sour taste that we lost, we played the game the way we wanted to.”
The question about the Rangers isn’t about their work ethic. It’s become their identity. The question about the Black-and-Blueshirts is about their talent level. Which is why Tortorella sought to answer with Zuccarello.
“It’s a hard thing for a coach when a kid comes up from the minors to put him in situations, but I went in with the mindset that we need skill,” the coach said. “Our club needs skill if we are going to continue to build this.
“I am not going to hide him.”