PITTSBURGH — One game.
That’s all the Rangers are focusing on, because that might be all there is.
“Win a game, and the whole mood of everything just changes — from being down after that performance [Wednesday] night, to we’re in it,” Brad Richards said on Thursday — his team somber and reeling on a practice day.
The Rangers are licking wounds still fresh from Wednesday’s 4-2 drubbing by the Penguins in Game 4, leaving the Blueshirts down in this best-of-seven, second-round series, 3-1, with a must-win game at Consol Energy Center on Friday night.
“Win a game, and this series is still far from over,” he said. “That’s the only way to really do it.”
It wasn’t exactly a Knute Rockne delivery, nor was the vibe in the Rangers locker room overly confident after a full-team practice that might have been energetic, but certainly was not lively.
“This is the hardest day of the year because you just want to get back out and play,” Richards said. “Unfortunately, you have to wait.”
Following the Rangers’ pitiful performance in Game 3, Richards decided to go historical on everyone, mentioning the fact that coming back from a 3-1 deficit is not unheard of. As a matter of fact, the Penguins blew this same lead just three seasons ago to the Lightning, a team that had current Rangers Martin St. Louis and Dominic Moore on it.
“I think it’s always good to know,” Richards said Thursday. “You see other teams that have gone through it, other players that have been in these days, these situations. Other teams have had bad games, and you look, just the last few years, how teams can rebound.”
Just last season, the Blackhawks came back from 3-1 down in their second-round series against the Red Wings, shuffling past Detroit in seven games and on to hoist the Stanley Cup. This year, the Kings did one better, rallying from 3-0 down to the Sharks to win their first-round series.
In the 26 seasons since 1987, when the playoffs expanded to all best-of-seven series, 26 of 266 (9.8 percent) teams facing a 3-1 deficit came back to win, six of 39 (15.4 percent) since 2009.
“I think our group is very resilient,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “I think our group has real solid leaders. They know that if we intend on pursuing this season, we have to win [Friday].”
Vigneault and the team also know if that is going to be the case, they’re going to have to be a lot better than they were on Wednesday.
Really, they’re going to have to better than they’ve been all season.
“We’re going to be desperate,” center Derick Brassard said. “We’ve shown all season that we can play on the road, so we have to do that.”
The problem is they’re not just playing against themselves. On this off day, Vigneault continued his effusive praise of the Penguins.
“They’re a good team and I don’t want to take any credit away from how well they’re playing,” he said. “They’re making it real hard on us.”
The fact Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin have run roughshod over the Rangers depleted defense — depleted not by injury, but by strewn confidence — hasn’t helped either.
“Those guys are the best in the league,” Vigneault said, “and right now they’re real strong and making it real challenging for our whole group to try and contain them.”
So history is against the Rangers, but not overtly so. The biggest challenge lies in the formidable Penguins, and so the focus for the Blueshirts is but one game, because that’s all it can be.
“This game is [built] on confidence and swagger and momentum, and right now, they have it,” Richards said. “A win and coming back to our building, who knows where that goes.”