Rangers' success isn't complicated
Brandon Prust celebrates his short-handed goal in the third period. (Feb. 12, 2012) Credit: David Pokress
GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- A first-place team can make hockey look easy and sound simple. Consider the Rangers (37-13-5) as they approach Thursday night's game against the Chicago Blackhawks at Madison Square Garden.
They have a goaltender, Henrik Lundqvist, who has won seven of his last eight games (three by shutout), averaging a 1.10 goals-against during that stretch, and even stopped one shot with the back of his head in Tuesday night's shutout victory at Boston.
"We compete hard as a hockey team and it starts there," coach John Tortorella said of Lundqvist. "It just oozes out of him, and always has. He just doesn't give, and that's a very important thing for your goalie and what you want your team to be."
Fast starts have characterized the Rangers all season, with a league-best 27-1-2 record when scoring the first goal of a game.
"We don't talk about it that much, trying to get a lead," Lundqvist said. "We just try to set a tone, get it going. It's important to show the other team, 'It's going to be a tough night.' "
With 22 blocked shots Tuesday night, the Rangers continue to lead the league in that full-speed-ahead-and-damn-the-torpedoes approach. There is no thought given to the injury risk, Tortorella said, because if "you figure you'll get hurt, you're going to get hurt.
"So you don't think about it," he said. "You play. This is the way we play. If guys don't want to play this way, they won't play. So that's a pretty simple answer to that. It's how our team is built. It's how we have found some success. If fact, we're going to have to even ratchet it up more if we're going to continue to be successful."
There is not time to be wasted on concern for lulls in certain departments. And, sure enough, the power play lately has been energized, with scores on five on their last 13 man-advantage situations in the last four games, making the Rangers 19-1-2 when scoring a power-play goal.
"They're playing," was Tortorella's simple explanation. "When players don't perform and there's so much scrutiny on that, they're human beings, they feel the pressure and they tighten up. And when a couple of good plays happen, it releases them. It's just that. It's no specific plays or what we've done in practice."
Taken together, there is a "confidence that's been there all year," forward Brad Richards said. "There's never panic. We feed off some of the big saves Hank makes, and with some of them, night in and night out, we're probably getting spoiled. But we're very structured; everybody's on the same page."
Easy. Simple.
Notes & quotes: Forward Ruslan Fedotenko, who missed a third straight game Tuesday after a blindside hit by Tampa Bay's Dominic Moore, did not practice Wednesday and will not be available for Thursday night's game . . . Left wing Wojtek Wolski, out since Jan. 15 after undergoing sports hernia surgery, has been recalled from a 14-day conditioning assignment and likely will take Fedotenko's place Thursday night.
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