As the puck softly caressed the net, blue-shirted players piled on top of one another, lost in a moment of celebration. But it was just that – a moment, to pass all too soon.
On Friday, the New York Rangers defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 in overtime. That win, in turn, clinched a victory for New York in their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series, winning it in five games. In doing so, they became just the third team in Stanley Cup playoffs series to win four games in a series while scoring two or fewer goals in each of those wins.
That win earned the Rangers some precious days of rest; in the brutal marathon that is the Stanley Cup playoffs, that is precious. But should that triumph be the high-water mark for the Rangers’ post-season, most would consider it a disappointment.
The Rangers aim for nothing less than to hoist the Stanley Cup. That they came ever so close to doing it last year adds extra impetus to their quest this year. Despite losing the Stanley Cup Finals in five games to the Los Angeles Kings, three of the five games went to at least one overtime; in fact, the Kings never led in regulation time in the first two games. Yet it was them, not the Rangers, triumphantly hoisting the Cup at the end. If you watch replays of the final game of the series, the Rangers vibrate with dejection at the end.
If anything, though, last year’s disappointment has proved fine motivation for the New Yorkers. They got off to a middling start in October and November, with a record of 11 wins, eight losses, and four shutout losses, before catching fire in December; that month saw their longest winning streak – eight games – in 40 years. By March, they became the first team to book a trip to the Stanley Cup playoffs. In the end, the Rangers finished with 53 wins, the most in team history and a final points tally of 113 – also the most ever by a Rangers team. Those gaudy numbers were enough to win the Presidents’ Trophy, given annually to the team with the best regular-season record in the league.
To come so close, and yet so far: that’s the inevitable fate of any second-place team. Lots of times, that disappointment can crush a team – that, perhaps, explains why it’s been 20 years since the losing team in a Super Bowl has managed to book a return trip. It’s not something you see often in the NHL, either – in recent Stanley Cup finals, only the 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins managed the feat. It’s rare enough for the winners – no team has successfully defended the Cup since the Detroit Red Wings did it in 1997 and 1998.
That’s the history that the Rangers strive against.
It doesn’t help that the Stanley Cup playoffs are essentially a different season. Where the NHL regular season can sometimes resemble an interminable drudge, the playoffs thrum with a liminal intensity. Nothing quite encapsulates playoff hockey quite like overtime. Where in the regular season, teams play one overtime, then proceed to a shootout round – essentially, the hockey version of penalties – in the playoffs, overtime piles on top of overtime.
This is not the leisurely extra time you see in soccer; this is sudden-death overtime. The first team to score wins. Glory and infamy stalk the ice. The end comes with devastating finality, even if teams have played the equivalent of two full games. It matters not – as the Rangers found out last year – if you led in regulation. If you give up a tying goal, you might as well start all over again.
Now: imagine climbing that mountain 16 times. That’s what it will take for the Rangers to win their first title in 21 years. They have to win four best-of-seven series to lift Lord Stanley’s Cup. Having won the Presidents’ Trophy matters not here. In order to win the Stanley Cup, the Rangers have to play teams who may have players who pose matchup problems for them (i.e., the New York Islanders). They may have to face a team with a goalie who rounds into legendary form; the Stanley Cup playoffs are littered with stories of mediocre goalies who suddenly became untouchable.
All those things – and others, besides – combine to make the Stanley Cup playoffs a fearsome beast for any team. Is it any wonder, then, that most Stanley Cup Finals losers can’t seem to make a repeat appearance?
Can the Rangers? They managed to defeat a good, not great, Pittsburgh team in the first round. They will face the winner of a scrappy Washington Capitals v New York Islanders series next; in the wild lurk Detroit, Tampa Bay, Montreal and Ottawa. All of those teams – particularly the Islanders, with whom the Rangers had a hard time this season – are capable of beating them.
But it is the manner of this first series victory that can give Rangers’ fans hope. New York defeated the Penguins without playing anywhere near their best. They’ll need to play much better than they did in order to win the Cup. The fact that they were able to get away with a mediocre performance throughout the series, and still win it in five games, should still some worries. Even if they face their local rivals, they do so having rested and recuperated, with either the Capitals or Islanders exhausted from having played all seven games in the first round.
As it stands – they are now 12 games away from history. The mountain grows less steep, the summit draws closer.
