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Derek Stepan is on a precipice, and he knows it.
The Rangers’ third-year center is no longer a prospect, can no longer chalk up mistakes to inexperience, and can no longer look at NHL stardom as a thing to come down the road. He is now the Rangers’ second-line center, and no matter how many times coach John Tortorella shuffles his lines, Stepan will be — has to be — an integral part of the team’s game plan.
“Well, we can’t bring anybody up from Hartford,” Tortorella said in frustration after his team’s 2-1 loss to the Flyers on Thursday night. “It’s not going to be anything like that.”
No, it’s going to be like this — see Stepan, apply pressure, hope he can respond to it.
“Anyone on our team can play the big minutes,” Stepan said. “I have to step up and score a goal.”
That would be a good place to start when the Rangers play host to the Maple Leafs tonight at the Garden. Already at 1-3-0, the Blueshirts are perilously close to getting into a debilitating hole early in this lockout-shortened, 48-game season. And to start clawing their way back, they need to be able to rely on Stepan for some offensive punch.
“I’m blessed with an opportunity to play, and the biggest thing is now that I’m getting these minutes is that I score a goal,” said Stepan, who has no goals, three assists and is averaging 19:43 of ice time a night, the fourth-highest among Rangers’ forwards.
“I want to try to help out in a positive way rather than just play the big minutes.”
The 22-year-old left the University of Wisconsin to join the Rangers at the start of the 2010-11 season, and impressed immediately with his vision and poise. He started this year, the final season of his entry-level contract, skating on a line with captain Ryan Callahan, now flanked on the left by surprise three-goal scorer Taylor Pyatt.
The group had its most assertive performance on Thursday, with its best scoring chance coming early in the second period when Stepan made a nifty move around a Flyers’ defenseman and had a point-blank rising wrist shot stopped by goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov.
“That’s what it comes down to, almost there, but you’ve got to make sure you bury it and finish,” Stepan said about the play. “[Bryzgalov] made a good save on me, but it happens, so that’s the way it goes.”
Tortorella has been his usual finicky self with mixing and matching line combinations, as well as shortening his bench as games go on. What it has proved thus far, which was not entirely true the past two years, is that Stepan is one of the players the coach now trusts, and he will be out there when it matters most.
It’s a role Stepan has embraced, not only for himself and his impending restricted free agency, but for the team and the coach that seems focused on nurturing him to stardom.
“It’s the next step in my development and I have to make sure I’m ready each night and I’m prepared to step into this role,” Stepan said. “I can be successful at it, I just have to make sure that each night I bring what got me here.”