LOS ANGELES — V for Victory. V for Vigneault.
The Rangers were relentless here on Monday night, taking the body, pursuing the puck and playing with passion that was missing in Thursday’s opening 4-1 defeat to Phoenix, to thus record a 3-1 triumph over the Kings for the first victory of the Alain Vigneault Era.
“It’s big for everybody in the organization and it’s good for Alain,” said Brad Richards, who scored twice and played a spirited game. “We believe in what we’re doing every day, but it never hurts to get two points on the board.
“It was night and day from a week ago as far as our compete-level and battle-level. We played with a lot more desperation. [Phoenix] was not a trademark of how we played the last couple of years.”
Probably not at all a coincidence, but the indefatigable Ryan Callahan made his season debut after missing Thursday’s opener, and he immediately put his inimitable stamp on the game — and on his team — by throwing two hits within 19 seconds on his first shift of the match.
It was Callahan being Callahan while also setting an example for his teammates.
“It was a little bit of both; me trying to go out and get a couple of hits to create energy for the team and me just playing the way I do to get myself into it,” said the captain, who missed essentially all of the second period after getting clipped on the jaw by Anze Kopitar’s stick.
“Our compete-level was something we addressed as a team after the first game. We were much better in that area and in our one-on-ones.”
Vigneault downplayed the significance of getting his first victory as coach of the Rangers — the 423d of his NHL career — but he did not downplay the significance of having Callahan in the lineup.
“It was my first time seeing him live as his head coach, and he brings a lot to the table,” Vigneault said. “His poise with the puck, his competitive nature, the way he finishes every check.
“For a player who’s not a big size, he plays a really big game.”
Callahan’s effort was contagious. Rick Nash elevated his game, dominating shifts with a physical presence. Brian Boyle played to his 6-7 size. The Rangers hunted down pucks, creating turnovers and winning battles all over the ice.
And Henrik Lundqvist was outstanding in net, battling through traffic in front in a 28-save performance that featured several one-on-one stops in close.
“In Phoenix I felt I was doing the right things but it’s hard to feel good about it when you don’t get the result,” Lundqvist said. “The last couple of days my practices and timing were a lot better.”
Richards scored the game’s first two goals, both times after the Rangers had created turnovers. His first came on a sharp-angle rebound of a Nash wrist shot to give the club a 1-0 edge at 13:32 of the first period with his second for a 2-0 lead at 10:46 of the second a redirect off L.A. defenseman Slava Voynov’s stick as No. 19 attempted to thread a two-on-one feed to Derick Brassard.
“I liked the way Richie was competing, and worked real hard to get the puck when he didn’t have it,” said Vigneault, who then praised Nash’s performance after having said on Saturday he needed “Nash to be Rick Nash.”
“He was pretty good tonight; I thought he was all right,” Vigneault said when asked if No. 61 had indeed been No. 61, smiling broadly and chuckling at his own understatement.
The Kings cut the margin to 2-1 at 12:11 of the third when Jake Muzzin took advantage of a Rangers’ turnover to beat Lundqvist from the left circle on a four-on-four, but the Blueshirts regained two-goal edge at 4:39 of the third when Ryan McDonagh’s 180-foot shorthanded bank shot somehow glanced in off a mortified Jonathan Quick.
“Obviously that was a little bit lucky, but it’s part of the game,” Vigneault said. “You need a little bit of luck in this game.”
But, as Lundqvist said, the Rangers “deserved to win.” They didn’t luck into it. Now they face the Sharks in San Jose on Tuesday, the Ducks in Anaheim on Thursday and the Blues in St. Louis on Saturday before heading back to New York to regroup before four more on the road.
“With the week we have ahead of us, it was big,” said the goaltender.
“It definitely was a game we can build on.”