It was an axiom of pro sports well before Bill Parcells affixed his name to it when the coach of the Giants one day proclaimed, “You are what your record says you are.”
The record says the Rangers are a playoff team again, one of 16 to qualify for the NHL’s postseason tournament. This may not be an achievement worthy of even a two-car motorcade up the West Side Highway, but it’s not nothing.
If you want nothing, you needn’t go back any farther than to the Dark Ages of Rangers’ hockey, the springs of 1998 through 2004, when the Garden went dark for playoff hockey for seven straight seasons.
It’s eight times in nine years in the playoffs now for the Rangers, the only team in the east other than the Penguins to qualify as often in the hard-cap era that followed the canceled 2004-05. If the Red Wings make it as an Eastern wild card, that will be nine straight for Detroit, who spent the prior eight years in the West. The Sharks are nine-for-nine.
Still, eight-for-nine with five corresponding playoff-round victories isn’t enough. It isn’t enough for the Rangers, isn’t enough for the fan base. It can’t be enough for this marquee franchise that is going on 20 years since the last Cup that is the one and only Cup since 1940. The Rangers need to win something sometime.
There are some young core pieces wearing the Blueshirt, but let’s face it, the time is now if not quite never for Henrik Lundqvist and Rick Nash, and now if not quite never again for Brad Richards and Marty St. Louis.
Richards and St. Louis have both been seeking to find their games this last month. The Rangers aren’t going anywhere except home from the summer without significant contributions from Butch and Sundance. That’s a given.
That they both had jump in their steps and were sharp throughout while creating offense both at even strength and on the power play were the most heartening aspects of Tuesday’s 4-1 victory at the Garden over the obedient Hurricanes, for this final week of the season isn’t as much about securing first-round home ice as it is about the Rangers finding security in their games, personally and collectively.
St. Louis, who has been on-again, off-again in his quest to be himself on the ice, was dynamic and creative while picking up three assists, or as many as he had collected in his first 17 games as a Ranger. Richards, who was the Blueshirts’ best forward the first half of the season, but has had his game go dry since the Olympics, skated with authority, quarterbacked the power play efficiently and scored twice.
“No doubt,” St. Louis said when asked if he needs to find his game now, rather than still be on the lookout for it when the playoffs commence. “The last five or six games, I’ve felt more like myself.
“I’ve felt like I’m more playing my game without worrying about being in the right place,” the winger said. “Now, I see myself again.
“A game like this was very encouraging. It was a feel-good game for me.”
It was a feel-good game for Richards too, even if he’s not wired to use a phrase like that. His two power-play goals — increasing his overall total to 20 — represented his first five-on-four points since March 1. The Rangers’ two power-play goals were half as many as they recorded in their preceding 15 matches.
“You have to go out and play the game, but for the most part, you want to use this week to make sure that no one goes into the playoffs without confidence,” Richards said. “You want the line combinations to work, the power play and penalty kill to be on, and everyone to feel good about where they are.
“That’s what was so good about this for Marty. And it was good for me, too.”
So Butch and Sundance are saddling up for one more ride. The Rangers are likely to go where (and as) they go — as long as it’s not Bolivia.