For the three players who have been with the Rangers the longest, Thursday night’s Game 6 triumph in the Eastern Conference final — a 1-0 victory over the Canadiens that sends the Rangers to their first Stanley Cup final in 20 years, was a moment they perhaps thought might never come.
Goalie Henrik Lundqvist has been a Ranger since 2005, playing in his ninth season in New York.
Defenseman Dan Girardi began his Rangers career in 2006 and is in his eighth season with the club.
Defenseman Marc Staal began his Rangers career in 2007 and is in his seventh season.
This was the second time in the last three years the Rangers have reached the Eastern Conference final. In 2012, they lost to the Devils in Game 6. The veterans, before this playoff run, talked about how they felt they’d left some business unfinished in that Devils series, that they had more to give.
This time, the Rangers and their veteran leaders left nothing to chance.
“Every year, you have optimism that you’re going to get to the playoffs and try to make a run,’’ Staal said. “I’ve been here a while. We came up short a couple years ago [against the Devils] and this time we didn’t. Everyone in this room was aware of the opportunity and the amount of effort and dedication it takes to win another round. We were able to do that and now we get to enjoy this and focus on the finals.”
Girardi wore a look of utter relief in his face in the crowded Rangers dressing room.
“It has been a while,’’ Girardi said. “I thought in 2012 we had a good run there, but lost to New Jersey in the conference final and we thought we had a great team then. Every year, we’ve been getting past that first round and sometimes the second round … and to take that next step is pretty special for us three — the guys that have been here the longest and obviously, for everybody.’’
Girardi was asked, “Why this year? Why this team?’’
“I don’t know,’’ he said. “Other than our tough start [to the season], we’ve been pretty consistent all year; that’s been our biggest thing — being consistent. When we have an off night, we come right back and play the way we have to. Guys are just bearing down that much more. … I don’t know what we did differently this year but it’s working for us.
“We’ve been trying for a few years here to get to that next step and it’s a great feeling right now. We just have to enjoy it, take it all in and go from there. I actually think we felt really good out here, felt really confident in our game and really shut it down there in the third period, played our kind of hockey and gave them nothing.’’
Both Rangers veterans pointed to this team’s bounce-back ability being a key to success, as evidenced by Thursday night’s almost flawless performance coming after their most sloppy performance of the season in Tuesday’s Game 5 in Montreal.
“Yeah, I mean that was a shadow of ourselves that game in Montreal,’’ Staal said. “We’ve had a lot of moments throughout the year where we’ve played a game like that and responded and played pretty well. We knew that we were going to play a great game. We were all on the same page and it showed.’’
Added Girardi: “We had some games where we weren’t our best this year, but we found a way to always come back with that good effort the next game. This was an example odd that. Obviously, we had a real tough one in Montreal (Tuesday) and we came back here and played a 60-minute game and got the job done.’’