Ryan McDonagh and several of his Rangers teammates were sitting around at the team hotel in Montreal on Sunday when suddenly, on the television set, there flashed an image of McDonagh, looking like he was about 12 years old, being introduced as the Canadiens’ first-round draft pick in 2007.
“We saw him on TV getting drafted and we were kind of giving it to him a little bit because he looked so young,’’ fellow defenseman John Moore said Wednesday. “We all started laughing.’’
The Canadiens, who traded McDonagh’s rights to the Rangers in 2009 after the defenseman played two seasons at the University of Wisconsin, find nothing funny at all about the major role he has had in putting them in a 2-0 hole entering Thursday night’s Eastern Conference final Game 3 at Madison Square Garden.
McDonagh and the Rangers, indeed, have had the last laugh as he has scored two goals and added four assists in the first two games. It was McDonagh’s goal 17 seconds after Montreal had taken a 1-0 first-period lead in Game 2 that sucked the life out of the Canadiens.
“Playing against Montreal, his former team, has lit a little bit of a fire under his butt,’’ Rangers winger Daniel Carcillo said. “It’s always nice to play well and kind of show the team that traded you what they’re missing, and that’s definitely what he’s doing now. He’s an elite defenseman in this league and he’s playing like one right now. We need him and he’s really stepped up.’’
Making this even more satisfying for McDonagh is that it has come slowly for him this postseason after missing the final five games of the regular season with a shoulder injury. But McDonagh has found his game in time for a Stanley Cup push.
“You look at these past few games and he’s playing at a whole new level, and it’s coming at the most important time in our season,’’ Moore said.
“He’s a special player for us; Ryan is just a gamer,’’ Brian Boyle said.
Of the Rangers’ seven goals in Game 1, McDonagh factored in four (one goal and three assists), becoming the first Rangers defenseman to record four points in a playoff game since Brian Leetch in Game 4 of the 1994 Stanley Cup finals.
McDonagh was voted the team’s most valuable player in the regular season, leading Rangers defensemen in goals (14) and points (43).
But he struggled to regain his form in the opening-round series against the Flyers, and was even called out by usually docile coach Alain Vigneault, urging more production from him.
“It was the first time in my career I missed a stretch of games because of an injury … and you want to try to get back to the way you were playing right away,’’ McDonagh said. “It didn’t happen right way. It didn’t click. The biggest thing was we were winning games. I knew over time I would find my game and help the guys the best I can.’’
And so he has.
“He’s brought his game right back to where it was before he got hurt,’’ Vigneault said. “He was, without a doubt, our best defenseman, maybe to some extent our top player throughout the year. That’s how good he’s been for us defensively and offensively.
“Coming back from missing those few games, it took him a little bit more time than we anticipated for him to find his game. It took him more time than he anticipated to find his game. But he did find it at the right time, and we need him to continue that.’’