It’s difficult to define all the characteristics of a great team, but here’s one place to start: depth.
And so it’s with that idea the Rangers are beginning to look like more than the middling bunch that started this season mired in a a depression, under a new coach, and then found its way up to just plain inconsistent.
After taking Monday off to rest and before departing to start a three-game road trip Tuesday night in Carolina against the Hurricanes, the Blueshirts are riding a wave of momentum.
They have seemingly disregarded the 0-2-1 start out of the Olympic break and have won two in a row, the first a 4-2 comeback win on Friday night that was strangely enough in Carolina, as well, followed by a pleasant and tidy 3-0 shutout of the Red Wings in Sunday’s Garden matinee.
And they have done this not on the backs of the big names. Of course, goalie Henrik Lundqvist is the biggest name of them all, and he was terrific in collecting historic career win No. 300 on Sunday.
But who were the offensive contributors? Not the likes of Rick Nash, Brad Richards, or the newly acquired Martin St. Louis, but instead, Sunday highlighted Derek Stepan and Chris Kreider, mixed in with a bright spot for Brian Boyle’s blind-squirrel-finds-a-nut goal that kept up the punch of an effective fourth line.
“Right now, we need contribution,” coach Alain Vigneault said after that game. “Whether it’s blocked shots or making heads-up plays. Anytime you get some offensive contribution from any players, right now especially us — we have had a couple of games where five-on-five we weren’t scoring a lot of goals. But [Sunday] is hopefully a start and we can carry it over into Carolina.”
Stepan is leading that charge, his two assists on Sunday extending his point streak to six games, during which he has one goal and eight assists. Kreider scored twice against Detroit, giving him 16 on the season and tying him with Richards for second-most on the team behind Nash’s 20. (St. Louis has 29 goals, but all were scored for Tampa Bay. He has just one assist in his three games as a Ranger.)
“I like scoring those goals,” said Kreider, who got one of his goals off a tip in front and the other off a rush, really showcasing his strength and speed, respectively. “I like scoring all goals, though. If it went in off my head I would’ve been happy.”
In contrast, Richards has scored three times in the past 13 games, and Nash has scored twice in the past 11. And yet somehow the Rangers are 8-3-1 over their past 12, which bridged the two-week Olympic break, and they’re 20-9-3 since Dec. 15, when their overall record of 15-17-1 made them seem like a long shot to be where they currently sit in the standings — one point clear of the idle Flyers for second place in the Metropolitan Division.
With 11 of the remaining 17 games on the road — and despite the fact the Rangers own a 19-11-0 road record, second-best in the conference — it is still clear there is work in front of them before the playoffs are a sure thing, and that depth will help them get there.
“I think everybody understands this is going to be a battle,” Vigneault said. “You have to be at your best, and put your best hockey on the ice.”