It’s the small things that win playoff games, so as the Rangers prepare for their eighth postseason berth in the past nine years, a small matchup discrepancy might be one of their biggest advantages.
Although depth throughout the organization may not be wonderful, what the Blueshirts have on this current roster is a group of forwards that, whether by merit of by history, demand a lot of attention.
In Tuesday’s 4-1 drubbing of the Hurricanes, coach Alain Vigneault moved Rick Nash to a line with Martin St. Louis, both perennial All-Stars. Vigneault then had 2004 Conn Smythe winner Brad Richards centering a line with two speedsters in Carl Hagelin and Jesper Fast.
And that left what has arguably been Vigneault’s most consistently productive line all season pretty well unchecked, as Benoit Pouliot, Derick Brassard and Mats Zuccarello darn well had their way with the Carolina defense all night.
“Now that Marty is with Nasher on one line, it’s pretty hard for their coach to match our line,” Brassard said after Wednesday’s practice, his team preparing for Thursday’s Garden match against the last-overall Sabres before the season finale in Montreal on Saturday, all with a first-round home-ice advantage still in their sights.
“Some nights we get third-pair defensemen, and that’s when we can take advantage. Sometimes, when we have really good games, you can see the coach adjusting after a couple shifts to give us another pair of defensemen or give us another [defensive] line.”
It’s that depth that could be the Rangers’ biggest advantage in the playoffs. They sit two points clear of the Flyers for second place in the Metropolitan Division, although Philadelphia holds one game in hand, still with a two-game jaunt for games against the Lightning and Penguins Thursday and Saturday, respectively, before their finale at home against the Hurricanes Sunday afternoon.
“We’re playing the right way right now, and we’ve been playing playoff hockey for a long time,” Vigneault said. “Anytime you get an opportunity to compete for the Stanley Cup, that’s as good as it gets.”
The emergence of Zuccarello as a force on the ice has been a well-chronicled tale, the 5-foot-6 shaggy kid from Norway turning his season around after a healthy scratch on Oct. 24 and now leading the team with 58 points in 75 games.
“He is extremely hard-working, extremely passionate about the game,” Vigneault said about Zuccarello, who received the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award in a pregame ceremony Tuesday night, and has since gotten a substantial amount of good-nature ribbing from teammates and staff for his “royal” wave to the Garden fans.
“You can tell — one of the first guys on, one of the last guys off,” Vigneault said. “He’s always working his butt off, and he’s having fun while he’s doing it. He’s worked his way to [be] this player.”
The Rangers have worked their way out of an early slump, in lockstep with Zuccarello, to get them to this place. So if they want to keep moving forward and be successful in the postseason, it’s the depth his line brings that could prove instrumental.
“We’re a four-line team,” Brassard said, “and that’s pretty hard to handle.”