Officially, the Rangers don’t have a Captain. No player has a “C” on his Blueshirt.
But Brad Richards, one of the team’s three alternate captains, has earned the honor of de-facto Rangers leader — with his inspired play, his steady hand in the locker room and his ability to guide his younger teammates through the gauntlet that has been the Eastern Conference playoffs.
“Brad’s been a leader since he got here,” center Derek Stepan said. “There’s a lot of guys who lead without having a letter on their chest. Brad’s been a guy who’s been through it, he’s won a cup. A lot of guys lean on him and we’re going to need to lean on him again.”
Coach Alain Vigneault didn’t name a new captain when Ryan Callahan was dealt to the Lightning for Martin St. Louis on March 5, instead relying on a “leadership group.” Richards clearly has the ear of the room. It was his decision, along with St. Louis, for the Rangers not to touch the Prince of Wales Trophy, out of superstition, because the real prize lies after the next round, against either the Kings or Blackhawks, with the Stanley Cup.
Richards, 34, has come a long way in the last year, from his playoff benching by former coach John Tortorella that brought some doubt as to whether he would even be back on Broadway because of his hefty contract and declining play. He came back all right, came back a more determined player under Vigneault, scoring 21=0 goals and adding 31 assists during a consistent regular season and notching a team-high five goals — two of them game-winners — along with six assists, in 20 playoff contests.
“When you lose ‘Cally,’ who was our captain, you got to recognize when the room needs things,” Richards said. “You just kind of know. You get a feel for the locker room. It’s been a challenge for me to try to help out that way.”
Richards, the 2004 Conn Smythe Trophy winner and Stanley Cup champion as a member of the Lightning, has steered it. When the Rangers trailed the Penguins 3-1 in the Eastern Conference semifinals, it was Richards who spoke first in the locker room, detailing his experience of being in such a hole. One win, he told his teammates, could change everything. It did.
Now the Rangers are on the cusp of a Stanley Cup crown.
“Everything he really says is happening on the ice throughout the [postseason],” defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. “He’s been tremendous since he got here, and I think he’s taken it to another level this playoffs.”