WASHINGTON — A day after an impressive Game 1 against the Caps, Wade Redden never once used the word, “redemption,” in any of its forms. It would not be his style to do so.
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Then again, it was darn near impossible to define his style throughout his first season on Broadway, but it sure wasn’t what anybody had in mind back on July 1, when the 31-year-old defenseman signed the six-year, $39M contract that’s become notorious on a league-wide scale.
Everyone knows what I thought of the signing, and everyone knows what I thought of Redden’s play this season, one in which he recorded the fewest goals (three), second-fewest points (26) and worst plus-minus (-5) of an estimable NHL career of a dozen seasons.
Everyone including Redden.
So yesterday, after a night on which he and partner Michal Rozsival were called on in relief of Marc Staal and Dan Girardi to contain the essentially uncontainable Alex Ovechkin in Game 1 against the Caps, Redden chuckled when I asked him whether he not only considered the playoffs as a clean slate, but whether he believed he was in need of one.
The question could have been the opening of a cross-examination had Redden been in a courtroom witness chair rather than a hockey locker room.
“Whether it was a good or bad regular season doesn’t matter at this point,” Redden said a day after his 27:35 of work contributed to the Rangers getting the series jump, 4-3.
“All that matters is we win every night, and that’s where my focus is, helping the team out.”
And then, naturally, the follow-up question was whether he believed his season had been good or bad. Truth of the matter is, it’s been impossible all year to tell what he’s been thinking.
No chuckle this time. Just either a glimmer of a smile or grimace, hard to tell which, accompanying an answer of, “It was both. There were ups and downs. I think I learned a lot my first year here. Now I’m turning the page.”
Of course it was the contract, but it wasn’t only the contract, it was the way Redden played, the way he always seemed so impassive, the way was unable to assert himself, especially at the point of the power play he was brought to New York to run. Two weeks ago, John Tortorella was lamenting the absence of a power-play quarterback.
It was the contract, but it was so much more (or less). Honest, does anyone watch Kimmo Timonen and think he’s a $6.333M-a-year defenseman, because that’s what he makes? Does anyone think Brian Campbell is a $7.142M defenseman because that’s what Chicago decided to throw at him last summer?
We all know who the $6.5M defensemen are. They’re Scott Niedermayer, Nicklas Lidstrom, Chris Pronger at his peak, Zdeno Chara at his best, Scott Stevens and Brian Leetch when they played. They’re not Redden, but what should he have done, say no to Glen Sather because the GM was offering too much?
“I had to deal with different things, the ups and downs, [a coach being fired],” Redden said when asked what he’d learned, other than this space quite often not being the friendliest place in town.
“It was just dealing with adversity and getting my game to where it needs to be.”
One night does not make a season, one Game 1 does not make a series, one series does not make a playoff run, and one playoff run does not make a contract.
But it’s a start. Wednesday was a start for Redden. Wednesday was Game 1 for a 12-year veteran in need of redemption after one year in New York.