Before last night’s opening salvo in the Battle of the Hudson, Rangers coach John Tortorella refused to consider the notion his players could be tired after completing a pair of grueling seven-game series victories over the Senators and Capitals.
He was just as defiant on that point after the Rangers dominated the third period of their 3-0 Game 1 victory over the Devils in the Eastern Conference Final.
“I don’t know where you guys get all this stuff about being tired,” Tortorella said. “If we’re tired this time of year, there’s something the matter. We still have a month to play.
“We’re not a tired hockey club. We’re ready to play … this club will be ready to play.”
While the Rangers had only managed to get past the Capitals on the same Garden ice 48 hours earlier, the Devils had been off for almost a week since they finished off the Flyers in five games. It looked like that might have an impact on the game in the second period, when the Devils controlled much of the play and tried to gain the lead.
“We turned it over, and we got sloppy,” Tortorella said. “I thought we had chances to get it out, we didn’t, and teams that are playing this time of year are going to try to capitalize.”
But the Devils didn’t, and when the Rangers came out for the third period, they completely flipped the script. It started with Dan Girardi’s blast from the right side that sailed past Martin Brodeur less than a minute into the period and continued with a goal from Chris Kreider at 12:00 before Artem Anisimov finished things off with an empty-netter.
“There’s no excuse to be tired, and that doesn’t matter to us,” said Girardi. “It might be better for us to come back and play another game instead of sitting around trying to think about it.
“They came out hard and were fresh, and I thought we did a good job of trying to match their intensity. I thought we had a good third period, and got the job done.”
History is working against the Rangers, as no team has won the Stanley Cup after going the full seven games in its first two series since the playoffs expanded in 1987. But last night they overcame whatever fatigue they may have been feeling to move one game closer to changing that.
“It’s very important,” Mike Richards said of taking the early lead in the series. “Now we move on right away to Game 2.”
No rest for the weary.