BOSTON — If anyone was going to bite, it would have been Brian Boyle.
The Dorchester, Mass., native and Boston College alumnus found himself yesterday only 15 months removed from publicly admitting he “hates the Bruins with a passion.” But this time, on the eve of the second-round playoff series between his Rangers and his hometown hockey club, Boyle chose professional deference.
“You don’t like any team you’re playing against,” Boyle said.
When asked if he dislikes the Bruins especially, Boyle was not going to toss up any bulletin-board fodder for tonight’s series-opener at the TD Garden.
“You don’t like any team you’re playing,” he repeated, smirking.
Yet it’s not just Boyle who is putting aside the extracurricular distractions at this point, but his whole Rangers team. Yes, the Bruins are physical. Yes, the Bruins are tough. Yes, they’re going to come out hard and try to impose their will.
But the Rangers aren’t here for a fight. They’re here to win one hockey game, then focus on another.
It’s all so quaint and cliché, but sometimes that’s how focus works.
“It’s pretty simple with what’s at stake,” Boyle said. “Advancing or going home — without trying to get ahead of yourselves, what’s at stake is the conference finals and all that. You play with the edge and the passion and the fire, and they’re going to do the same thing. So, you just hate your opponent and it’s a reaction to that.”
Already this postseason the Rangers have seen how most of the time it’s the team that takes the high road that ends up ahead.
In their first-round series against the Capitals, the Rangers restrained themselves from retaliating after some marginal physical antics, and they ended up getting under Washington’s skin to win Games 6 and 7 and advance.
“We’ve got everyone and their brother whining about what happened in that Washington series, and I think that’s a big reason why they lose that series,” said coach John Tortorella, specifically talking about Capitals star winger Alex Ovechkin and his comments on Tuesday about unfair officiating, thoughts which were echoed by Washington general manager George McPhee yesterday. “I think our mindset is really good at not letting anything bother us, and get ready to play each day.”
The question now is can that same mindset allow the Rangers to go into this series carrying some momentum? The Bruins won their Game 7 against the Maple Leafs in overtime after being down 4-1 in the third period, and will obviously be carrying some momentum. But the Rangers’ 5-0 win in their Game 7 was a different kind of morale boost, and it’s to be seen which carries over with more effectiveness.
“It’s second round, it’s gaining even more intensity,” defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. “You feed off of both Game 7 wins for both teams here in dramatic fashion. So there’s going to be a lot energy from both teams and guys have a lot of confidence. So you have to make sure you don’t get over-hyped and lose your discipline at times.”
Now is a bad time to lose discipline, for sure. Boyle knows it, his teammates know it, and the coach is preaching it.
“I think you sense yourself getting where you want to be,” Tortorella said. “I think the intensity can ramp up a little bit, because you win a round, you have [three more] rounds to win to get to where you want to be. So it’s more exciting.”
