Rangers reaching playoff state of mind
Mats Zuccarello of the New York Rangers celebrates his second period goal against the New Jersey Devils with teammate Ryan Callahan. (March 19, 2012) Credit: Jim McIsaac
GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- An echoing phrase around the Rangers these days is "this time of year."
Only seven games remain in the 2011-12 season. Playoff tickets already are on sale. Leading the Eastern Conference by a point, the Rangers have reached the stage of holding separate thoughts simultaneously -- a one-game-at-a-time concentration, beginning Tuesday night against the Wild in St. Paul, Minn., as well as a concept of that tantalizing playoff season a couple of weeks away.
"This time of year," defenseman Marc Staal said, "you want to stay on top. Obviously, we want to keep winning. But we want to make sure we're playing our best hockey come the playoffs. Our focus has to be on our team and how we're playing."
This time of year, "it's really important to be playing good into the playoffs," captain Ryan Callahan said. "You don't have much time to fix your game once you're in a series. We feel we're hitting our stride and playing our best hockey."
On the one hand, coach John Tortorella said: "We are working on some weaknesses of our game right now, just continually going over our concept, how we play, and I think a big reason for us getting where we're at right now is that we've played really good as a team. So we're just going over our general structure, touching base, on all the things."
But there also is plenty of thought given to the postseason.
"What are we going to do on our back end?" Tortorella said. "What are our lines going to be? And that's not getting too far ahead. We haven't been in this situation before with a number of games left. We have some questions as far as, if we remain healthy, what is the lineup going to be when you get to the real stuff?"
There remains a need to "play hard, no matter what," forward Brad Richards said.
And a need for "constant reminders, as far as details," Tortorella said. "The coaching staff believes if you don't solve the problems of today and you slide those, you're going to have more problems. There's always something you're trying to work on, trying to figure out, that maybe you need to address, each and every day when you're coaching. You try to get them out of the way right away. If there's a problem, we address it. If there's a good thing, we address it.
"This time of year, there's not going to be a lot of separation from coaches and players. We've gone through that. We've got a really good group. We understand how to play."
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