LOS ANGELES — Brad Richards’ overriding message to his teammates was pure and simple before the Rangers embarked on their final journey Wednesday night with Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals against the Kings.
It was the very same message he delivered before this tournament started seven weeks ago with Round 1 against the Flyers, and yes that was actually this year the Blueshirts faced Ray Emery in Game 1 even if it seems so long ago that Pete Peeters could have been in nets for the now neutered Bullies.
“Seize the moment,” would be the condensed version of the de facto captain’s oratory. “Seize the moment because you never know when you’re going to get this opportunity again.”
There at a podium at media day on Tuesday was Chris Kreider, getting his first chance after what officially was designated as his rookie NHL season even though this is his third playoff tournament. He didn’t have to wait long.
At a table sat J.T. Miller, who has parts of two NHL seasons to his résumé. His wait was even shorter.
For Henrik Lundqvist, though, it’s taken nine years to get here. And it has taken Rick Nash 11 years to mount this stage, the longest gestation period among the Rangers.
But at least the waiting is over for Lundqvist and Nash. At least they have the opportunity to play for the Stanley Cup.
So few trips to the finals for the Rangers’ franchise and so many players whose wait never ended. This is the first in 20 years, you may have stumbled onto that factoid once or twice already this week. That trip in 1994 that ultimately ended with the ride up the Canyon of Heroes was the first in 15 years.
True, the ’70s produced two Cup finalists seven years apart in 1972 and 1979, but honestly, could it have been crueler that Jean Ratelle had a broken ankle in 1972 and Ulf Nilsson had a broken ankle in 1979, thus removing each of those team’s first-line center from the equation against Boston and Montreal, respectively?
That’s why, and every Rangers fan knows it, the Golden Era of the ’70s did not include the silver chalice.
Oh, and before 1972, the Rangers had made it to the finals once since 1940. That was 1950, when the club could not play a home game in the series because the Garden had booked the circus. So two “home” games were played in Toronto in the seven-game series that featured five games in Detroit including the Red Wings’ Game 7 double-overtime victory.
So few trips to the finals. So many fondly remembered Rangers who never stopped waiting.
It’s funny, though, when Andy Bathgate finally got there with Toronto in 1964 after he’d been traded to the Maple Leafs in a midseason blockbuster, it was as if the Rangers were there. When Gump Worsley got to the finals with the Canadiens in 1965, it was as if the Rangers were there.
But of course they weren’t.
Harry Howell played 1,160 regular-season games for the Rangers. His No. 3 was retired belatedly by the club on the same February 2009 night on which Bathgate’s banner was raised to the pinwheel Garden ceiling.
But Howell, who wore the Blueshirt from 1952 through 1970 never made it and was the last recipient of the Norris Trophy before Bobby Orr won it eight straight years from 1968 through 1975, never made it to the finals after leaving New York the way his compadres Bathgate and Worsley did.
For Howell was dispatched to the Seals by general manager Emile Francis — the Seals! — before finishing his NHL career with the Kings, who were at that time about four decades away from getting to the finals for the first time.
But … in the good things happen to good people who wait department, Howell eventually did get his name inscribed on the Stanley Cup as a scout working for Glen Sather and the 1990 Oilers.
Reijo Ruotsalainen, maybe the antecedent to Ryan McDonagh (or even Brian Leetch), scored 28 goals for the 1984-85 Rangers. The Finnish defenseman was a core member of those Herb Brooks teams of the era that could not get by the dynastic Islanders, and then could not do much more than get by, at all.
No Blue finals for Rexy, but he would earn a ring in Edmonton, two in fact for the 1988 and 1990 Oilers.
James Patrick is one of the best defensemen in franchise history never to get to the ball. He did, of course, start the 1993-94 season with the Rangers but was traded early in the year in the deal that brought Steve Larmer to New York.
No Cup for Patrick, and that of course is unfortunate, but Rangers fans understand that there would have been no Cup for the Blueshirts without Larmer.
Mike Gartner, oh boy, 19 years in the NHL, 708 career goals, three consecutive 40-plus goal seasons for the Rangers in the early ’90s … and traded to Toronto for Glenn Anderson at the 1994 deadline primarily because coach Mike Keenan (now a Post columnist for the finals) did not believe No. 22 had the right stuff for a Cup run.
Tough stuff for Gartner, one of so many Rangers who never had the chance to play for the Stanley Cup that Kreider, Miller, Lundqvist and every one of the 2014 Blueshirts has at this moment.