Though maybe not quite as emphatically, the Rangers have done this before.
So it would be prudent to temper the enthusiasm for their 6-2 win over the NHL-leading Stars on Tuesday night, and let it stand as just a single game; nothing more, nothing less. The Blueshirts are still a team in a funk, and although it is looking like the darkness is lifting, there needs to be more than just one game, or one small stretch of games, for that to be a reality.
“Come tomorrow,” Derek Stepan said, “it doesn’t mean anything.”
Well, it does mean something, as this was the third straight game the Rangers (22-14-4) played sound defensively, and created a plethora of scoring opportunities. It was in their own end where it was most impressive, as the Stars (28-10-4) came in not only with the best record in the league, but with the highest scoring offense.
“They knew right from the beginning it wasn’t going to be easy to break through and score,” defenseman Marc Staal said. “We just kept wearing them down, and it was a solid effort from everyone from our blue line in.”
It might have helped that Stars captain Jamie Benn “played a terrible game,” he said, and his team played “stupid hockey” en route to a 0-2-1 trip through the Metropolitan area. But unlike the Rangers’ 3-0 road loss to the Panthers on Saturday, which ended a 1-2 trip and had the Rangers fall to 5-11-2 in their previous 18 games, they were able to convert on their scoring chances.
“If I look at this game and I break it down, we did a lot of the same things we did in Florida — but this time we scored,” coach Alain Vigneault said.
Vigneault got a boost from the recently called-up Jayson Megna, who scored in his first game as a Ranger late in the third to seal the game. He also got two goals from the previously slumping Derek Stepan, and a three-assist night from a lively Rick Nash — the three combining to create a new line that had a lot of jump all evening.
There is no question this looked a lot more like the Rangers of old, the Rangers who went to three of the past four conference finals and one Stanley Cup final. The Rangers, if you remember, that still hold onto to dreams of hoisting that Stanley Cup.
But they looked close to that last Wednesday beating the Lightning, and on Dec. 6 against the Senators. There have been spotty good performances since that fateful day before Thanksgiving when the Canadiens ripped them for a 5-1 win and started this downward spiral.
“We need the same mentality of playing against one of the top teams in the league,” Staal said. “I think everyone in here, we get excited for the challenge, and then we know the way we need to play to beat those types of teams.”
Goalie Henrik Lundqvist was mostly there when called upon, the only blimp coming on long John Klingberg shot 13:50 into the first period that tied the game, 1-1. But the Rangers needed just 66 seconds to answer, getting a seeing-eye shot from Keith Yandle to retake the lead.
From there it was Derick Brassard late in the tight-checking second period to make it 3-1, then Stepan’s shorthanded breakaway — the team’s first shorthanded goal of the season — early in the third to make it 4-1. A Viktor Stalberg bang-in at the right post made it 5-1, while Antoine Roussel got one for the Stars before Megna ended it.
As for keeping it going when the Eastern Conference-leading Capitals arrive Saturday afternoon, Vigneault let out a small laugh, knowing he has been down this road before.
“We’ll see against Washington,” the coach said.