And so yet again there were the Rangers on defense for the third straight game with 21-year-olds Adam Fox, Libor Hajek and Ryan Lindgren; 24-year-old Tony DeAngelo; and 25-year-olds Jacob Trouba and Brady Skjei.
And here are the Rangers going against Ottawa at the Garden on Monday night seeking their third straight victory after limiting their previous two victims — Tampa Bay last Tuesday and Nashville on Saturday afternoon — to one goal apiece.
The last time the Blueshirts had limited opponents to one goal or fewer in consecutive games came just under a year ago in 2-1 and 5-0 victories over the Stars and Islanders, respectively, in the final two contests prior to Thanksgiving and the 3-6-5 crash that followed.
The team has not held opponents to one goal or fewer in three straight games in nearly two years, since 3-0, 6-1 and 2-1 (OT) victories over the Senators, Hurricanes and Red Wings, respectively, from Nov. 19-24, 2017.
So, green can work on the blue line, at least for a limited time.
The Rangers have incorporated young defensemen into the mix before, of course, but not quite to this degree for a very long time. Marc Staal, Dan Girardi and Fedor Tyutin were all 24-and-under on the 2007-08 team that went to the second round of the playoffs. That team, though, also had veterans Michal Rozsival, Paul Mara and Christian (We Hardly Knew Ye) Backman to balance the blue line.
Even through the decade of the 60’s, when Emile Francis was constructing a powerhouse operation and presented a back line including the youthful Arnie Brown, Rod Seiling and Jim Neilson (later, of course, plus Brad Park), veteran Harry Howell was a mainstay, Dale Rolfe was added to the mix and so was Tim Horton and even down the road, so was Gilles Marotte. Ugh. All those other kids, the ones like Andre Dupont, Mike Robitaille and Ab DeMarco, well, they were traded away.
These Rangers acquired Fox, Hajek, Lindgren, DeAngelo and Trouba in trades while drafting Skjei in the first round as the 28th overall selection in 2012. And while Fox was drafted by Calgary, Hajek by Tampa Bay and Lindgren by Boston, none played a game for his original franchise. So even if not literally, the three youngest defensemen certainly are Bluebloods.
The closest parallel to this blue-line transformation is four-plus decades old and followed the first Did Everything But Win the Cup era just as this one comes after the second Did Everything But Win the Cup era.
It all came crashing down for those Rangers in the aftermath of the 1974-75 preliminary round loss to the Islanders on J.P. Parise’s Game 3 overtime goal at the Garden and the slow start to the following season. Teddy Irvine had been sent away to St. Louis over the summer as part of the package that brought John Davidson, Ed Giacomin’s heir apparent in nets, to New York.
You know the rest by heart. There was no letter, but Francis, who had hired Ron Stewart to coach the team after earlier tries with Bernie Geoffrion and Larry Popein as his stand-in behind the bench, didn’t need one. The organization’s intentions could have been written in the sky when Giacomin was waived on Halloween of 1975 and Park and Jean Ratelle were traded to the Bruins just over a week later, 44 years ago this coming Thursday. An era had ended and it was incoming general manager John Ferguson’s responsibility to create a new one. The tradition-denying new duds of 1976-77 and 1977-78, the disrespect accorded to franchise icon Rod Gilbert and the Rick Middleton trade aside, Ferguson essentially did that.
But with an assist from the Cat.
For in 1974, Francis drafted Dave Maloney in the first round with the 14th-overall selection and Ron Greschner in the second round at 32nd overall.
In 1976, Ferguson drafted Dave Farrish in the second round at 24th overall and Mike McEwen 42nd overall in the third round. A year later, the Blueshirts drafted Mario Marois 62nd overall in the fourth round.
And in 1977-78, with Jean Guy Talbot and his track suit behind the bench, the Rangers went with a blue-line corps featuring the 20-year-old Marois, 21-year-olds Maloney and Farrish (the latter played only eight games), 23-year-old Greschner, 24-year-old McEwen…and 32-year-old Carol Vadnais, 34-year-old Don Awrey and 36-year-old Dallas Smith. Odd mix, no?
And then two years later, when the Blueshirts went on a run to the Cup final before losing in five games to Montreal, the defense was Greschner, Maloney, McEwen, Farrish, Marois and Vadnais.
The youth had endured and matured. Four decades later, the Rangers hope for a similar outcome.