Alain Vigneault has already called for “unconditional love” once from the Garden fans this postseason. And now, in a dire situation and with his team’s season on the line, the Rangers coach is hoping for more of the same.
Vigneault has brought his Blueshirts back to New York with a mess on his hands, down to the Kings 2-0 in the best-of-seven Stanley Cup finals, with Game 3 on Monday night the first game at the Garden with the Cup up for grabs since June 14, 1994 — that year remaining a glorious respite from the franchise’s 74-year malaise.
“Well it’s the biggest game that New York has had here in 20 years, so I think our fans are as excited as we are,” Vigneault said after returning home on Sunday. “People might be disappointed that we’re down by two, but it obviously wasn’t from lack of effort. We’ve played nine periods of hockey, and we’ve played some real solid hockey in there. It’s a real good team. We know the challenge.”
The Rangers have that lone championship since 1940, and it’s a position they will have quite a hard time trying to remedy with a formidable opponent, one with experience and depth and all the things needed to hoist the most prized possession in the sport. The Kings pushed them to two overtime games, and took both in rousing fashion.
“Tomorrow is as close to a ‘must’ game as I think we can have,” Vigneault said. “Until you face elimination, that’s as close as we can get.”
Vigneault couldn’t help but bring up two instances from Game 2 — the no-call when Henrik Lundqvist was barreled over by Dwight King in the third period which led to the Kings’ game-changing third goal, and when Los Angeles defenseman Alec Martinez tossed the puck over the boards with no delay-of-game penalty just before the game-winning goal in the second overtime.
“We were playing real solid and sometimes [things] like that happen,” Vigneault said. “I believe it’s going to even out, and I believe we’re going to win the next game.”
Well if that’s what happens, it would certainly embolden the Garden crowd, whose enthusiasm had been a sticking point through the first round and half of this postseason, as the Flyers and Penguins came in and didn’t find the most hostile environment. But once the Rangers returned for Game 6 of the second round against Pittsburgh, it seemed like that shiny $1 billion-renovated palace awoke and remembered how good hockey can be as spring turns to summer and thoughts of a parade dance around the Mayor’s office.
Back then, in mid-May but what seems like a decade ago, the Rangers had just taken an emotional Game 5 victory in Pittsburgh, rallying around Martin St. Louis, after his mother’s death, and uniting as a team on a mission. The intelligent crowd back at home — one that may not be as crass in the Blue Seats anymore, but still understands when its team needs a lift, and how to do it — rose to the occasion in Game 6, screaming the place into oblivion when St. Louis scored the opening goal, a goal for the ages that happened to be on Mother’s Day.
“We’re really upset at the result right now, but we’re not going to over-analyze it — just wake up tomorrow and turn the page and move on,” St. Louis said Saturday night, having just scored his team-leading seventh goal this postseason, his 40th career playoff goal in his to-be Hall of Fame career. “There is no better way to get right into it than with two overtime games. This is fun hockey. And we just have to win a game at home.”
The way the Rangers lost the first two games of their first Cup finals in two decades was both a positive and negative.
Through one overtime and one double overtime, they showed they could play with the Kings, the team that is almost unbelievably resilient and is gunning for its second championship in three years. But in those tight moments, holding four separate two-goal leads in the first two games, the Rangers still found a way to lose, and it has them in a very unenviable position.
“The series isn’t over yet,” said bedrock defenseman Ryan McDonagh. “They have a 2-0 lead, but we’re going home. We’re excited. We got to use our crowd here. They just won two at home. We have to start with Game 3 and have a good approach there.”
The approach, the preparation, the starts — those have not been the problem for the Rangers. They started both games with 2-0 leads, and yet now they’re down 2-0 in the series.
— Dan Martin contributed to this report