This was Thursday morning in the Rangers’ locker room after the team had skated in preparation for that night’s match in Denver against the Avalanche.
Derick Brassard was chatting with a couple of reporters about different potential scenarios under which the Blueshirts would clinch a playoff spot when Mats Zuccarello interrupted.
“What’s the difference what other teams do?” Zuccarello said. “It only matters what we do. If we win our games, it doesn’t matter what happens anywhere else.”
The Norwegian was correct.
And though the path to clinching a spot — or, in the words of both Marc Staal and coach Alain Vigneault following the 3-2 shootout defeat in Colorado, “getting a check-mark next to our name in the standings” — would be greased by defeats by the Maple Leafs, Capitals and Devils, the simplest formula is this:
One victory in the remaining four matches, beginning with Saturday’s opener of a three-game homestand against the Senators, and the Rangers will qualify for postseason play for the eighth time in the nine-year hard-cap era.
If the Blueshirts, 7-1-1 in their last nine games and 10-4-2 since the trade deadline, do succeed on their first opportunity, it would mark only the third time over these last nine seasons that the team’s fate was decided with at least a week to go in the season.
“That would be different,” said Henrik Lundqvist. “But to go to the last game or two is also exciting.”
Hmm. So is a blindfolded dive off a cliff into a shallow pool.
The 2005-06 and 2011-12 seasons were exceptions that prove the rule, with both of those clubs clinching with weeks to spare.
The 2006-07 team qualified with a victory in Game 81 of the 82-game season. The 2007-08 club qualified with a victory in Game 80. In 2008-09, again the clinching came with a victory in the season’s penultimate match.
The 2009-10 team was eliminated on the final day of the season upon a shootout defeat in Philadelphia. A year later, the Rangers qualified on the final night when Carolina lost at home to Tampa Bay — and how many texts, do you suppose were exchanged between then-New York coach John Tortorella and then-Lightning winger Marty St. Louis? — hours after the Blueshirts had won their season finale that afternoon at the Garden.
Last year, the club clinched with a victory in Carolina in Game 47 of the 48-game lockout-truncated season.
Hence, a victory tonight would be the equivalent of a high school student being accepted to college through early decision.
Qualifying on Saturday would also give the Rangers a week’s worth of breathing room though next Saturday’s finale in Montreal to address areas of disrepair that have crept into the club’s game in conjunction with the absences of first-line winger Chris Kreider and first-pair defenseman Ryan McDonagh.
Yes, there is the matter of attempting to nail down first-round home ice, but, a) the Rangers are 25-14-1 on the road as opposed to 18-16-4 at the Garden, so let’s not go overboard on home-ice advantage; and, b) the Blueshirts could use a stress-free final week to work on generating chemistry among suddenly and constantly changing combinations after a season of stability.
The loss of Kreider on the unit with Derek Stepan and Rick Nash has opened a hole up front that the Rangers can’t seem to fill without creating another one. Injuries, of course, are part of the game. So is depth, or lack thereof. Seriously; Dan Carcillo as a top-nine forward?
The loss of McDonagh has left the Rangers with the unwieldy and unusual alignment on defense of four righties. And when Vigneault cuts down or tries to mix and match with the lead — as he did through the third period of Thursday’s match in which the Blueshirts nursed a 2-1 edge until the Avalanche tied it at 19:08 — that means either Anton Stralman or Kevin Klein on the left side after careers spent on the right.
The Rangers have been a resourceful team. They have found ways to win. It behooves them to find a way to win their next one as quickly as possible.