LOS ANGELES — A year ago, Brad Richards found out he was being scratched from Game 4 of the second round against the Bruins at the team dinner the night before the match.
He didn’t find out from John Tortorella, the coach at the time, or from anyone else on the staff. Richards, The Post learned this year, found out when fourth-liners/habitual scratches Kris Newbury and Micheal Haley both said during the course of casual conversation they’d be in the lineup the following night.
Richards could do the math: Newbury plus Haley equaled No. 19 sitting it out. The following morning, the morning of Game 4, Richards received a phone call from Tortorella in which he informed the club’s alternate captain, and his one-time and longtime ally, that he would indeed be in street clothes for the contest.
Which he was, as well as for the elimination Game 5 in Boston in which Newbury, Haley, Derek Dorsett, Roman Hamrlik and Steve Eminger were the five Rangers on the ice for the Bruins’ game-winning and series-clinching goal, and who could make up something like that?
It is not the same time next year and it is not the same thing as last year, for the Blueshirts are two rounds deeper than they went in 2013 and Richards remains in the lineup, albeit reassigned to the fourth line for Wednesday’s Game 4, 2-1 victory at the Garden that made Friday’s Game 5 at Staples Center necessary.
This was a move made by coach Alain Vigneault following a couple of games in which Richards and Richards’ line with Carl Hagelin and Martin St. Louis struggled mightily in their own end of the ice and to gain possession of the puck.
This was a move made respectfully by Vigneault, who met with Richards on Wednesday morning to explain his thinking.
And this was a move that, even if it must have hurt Richards so badly, was accepted with equanimity by the Blueshirts’ de facto captain who has essentially been the voice of the team since Ryan Callahan was sent away at the deadline.
All of the heavy lifting remains in front of the Rangers, who still face 2014 extinction with a single loss, and who must improve their play from Game 4 if there’s going to be a Game 6 at the Garden on Monday.
This much is known about the Rangers, and the King of Lundqvist who tends their net: They believe, they truly believe, they are L.A.’s equals. They do not believe they deserve to be down 3-1 in the finals, not in the slightest. And according to the renowned philosopher Costanza, it is not a lie if you believe it. Oh, do the Rangers believe it.
It is now, as it essentially always has been, a foregone conclusion the Rangers will use their second and final amnesty buyout on Richards before June 30. There is, then, a fair bit of melancholy watching Richards in these final days for those who have an appreciation for him as an accomplished NHL player who is among the most popular athletes in the NHL among his peers.
Richards came to New York largely because of the opportunity to reunite with his 2004 Cup-winning coach, Tortorella; partially because of the opportunity to play for a large market Original Six team in the Northeast following a career spent in Tampa Bay and Dallas; and obviously because the Rangers were willing to front-load his nine-year, $60 million deal with $24 million the first two years and $33 million by Year Three … this year.
The Rangers wanted Richards to come to New York because they were looking for a center to play with Marian Gaborik as well as looking for a leader with Cup credentials.
One out of two isn’t bad.
Richards is the consummate professional; the consummate team player. Anyone who would argue his signing should be lumped with those of Wade Redden or Scott Gomez or Bobby Holik (or, for that matter, Chris Drury, forced into premature retirement because of ravaged knees) is missing the point.
Because Richards, a singular leader, has paid for himself throughout a three-year stretch in which the Rangers have played 28 playoff games at the Garden … 28 playoff gates … worth, what, exactly … $100 million to ownership? More?
And even if the legs might not be as willing as the heart, Richards has been a leader for the Rangers. He is a respected teammate who accepted this reassignment in the spirit with which everyone who knows him knows he would.
“I haven’t been where I need to be this series, so my ice time has been lower,” Richards said following Thursday’s practice in L.A. “We’re trying to win games, to get a chance to win a Cup, so … ”
So Game 5 on Friday, Rangers needing one to keep going, needing one to get this back to New York with Richards in a supporting role.
Same time next year? Not even close. This year, the Rangers — and Richards — are three wins away from hoisting the Stanley Cup.