MONTREAL — From this historical high point, the Rangers are able to clearly look back and see the depths of each trough.
Here, one win away from reaching their first Stanley Cup final in 20 years, they are able to recognize the most desperate points of this long and hard season, and see how they have climbed from those depressions to reach this place, Game 5 of the Eastern Conference final at Bell Centre on Tuesday night with a chance to finish off the Canadiens, up in the best-of-seven, 3-1.
“We’ve had one game in these playoffs where we weren’t totally focused — Game 4 against Pitt,” forward Brian Boyle said on Monday while speaking at the team’s hotel in rainy Montreal, a day the Rangers were given no on-ice responsibilities.
That game on May 7 was a turning point for the Rangers’ postseason, as a 4-2 drubbing at the hands of the Penguins put the Rangers down in their second-round series, 3-1. It was promptly followed by five consecutive wins, victories in six of the next seven, to get them to this point.
“We weren’t totally focused, whether it be mentally or physically,” Boyle said. “It sticks out that if you’re not 100 percent in the moment and focused and have all your energy on what’s the task at hand — we were embarrassed in that game. It can happen quickly. And momentum can happen quickly throughout the game and a series.”
That momentum is exactly what the Rangers are trying not to cede to the Habs, knowing from their own experience against Pittsburgh that a 3-1 deficit is not insurmountable.
“A little bit of hope can change everything,” said Brad Richards. “If they can win one, they probably think it can go seven.”
Richards’ friend Martin St. Louis also made an interesting point about the nature of the team when he arrived at the March 5 trade deadline, noting that these Rangers weren’t like a lot of other teams.
“When I first got here the first couple weeks, I’m like, ‘This team plays like they’re in the playoffs right now,’” said St. Louis, who scored the overtime winner in Game 4 that set the Garden aflame. “I’ve played on teams before where you feel you have to turn the switch on a little bit. Once the playoffs start, it’s a different style.
“That wasn’t the case when I got here. I was impressed at how they played such a playoff-style hockey game. It was very encouraging for me knowing that once I got going this was going to be a good opportunity because this team is built for playoff hockey.”
Richards has an explanation for that mentality and it goes back to October, when the Rangers started with a season-opening nine-game road trip with a record of 3-6, and didn’t get to two games over .500 until Jan. 8, with 45 games gone by.
“We play a certain way because we probably had to win to get in,” Richards said, his team eventually finishing second in the Metropolitan Division with 96 points. “If we didn’t do that the last half of the season, we weren’t getting in.”
Well, the Rangers got in, and now they’ve continued to push and not be satisfied and not look too far ahead.
“We’ve done nothing yet,” St. Louis said. “We keep reminding ourselves we understand the fourth game is the toughest one to win, and we know we’re going to have to bring our best and more.”
The Blueshirts haven’t been to a Cup final since that memorable team of 1994, with Messier, Leetch, Richter; The Guarantee, the Devils, the Bure Breakaway. Now this one has Richards, St. Louis, Lundqvist; The discarded Flyers, the beating of Crosby, the galvanizing moment of the death of St. Louis’ mother, and the verbal jousting with the Canadiens.
A franchise with a rich past is now watching as a new team holds the pen over a single-season story with some terrific opening chapters.
“A great part of playing with an Original Six team is the history,” Richards said. “But we’re trying to create our own history.”