So without Darius Kasparaitis in the lineup last night against the Flyers, the Rangers didn’t have their red flag to wave in the faces of Donald Brashear, Peter Forsberg and their teammates.
“No one should worry; we have others who can carry that torch,” Tom Renney semi-joked about the absence of his most physical defenseman, who missed the match at the Garden with lingering soreness from a groin pull he sustained during the second period of Monday’s victory over the Bruins. “But we’re also smart enough about it to know that we’re here to play the game, and to win.”
An attempted hip check by Kasparaitis against Forsberg early in the first period of the March 2 game in Philadelphia sent the Flyers – and Brashear, in particular – into a snorting, bull-like rage that led to self-destruction.
The Blueshirts scored four power-play goals – three a result of attempted payback on Kasparaitis – in coasting to a 6-1 victory that ended with Martin Rucinsky making an obscene gesture at the Flyers.
But it’s not only that game in which the Rangers have used their power play to advantage against the Flyers, whom they led in the race for the Atlantic Division title by two points while holding a game in hand. Fact is, while going 3-0-2 in their first five against the Flyers – both defeats in OT at the Garden, with two regulation wins and an OT victory in Philly – the Blueshirts had gone 8 for 20 on the PP while at the same time going 23 for 28 on the PK.
What’s more, the Rangers were on another one of their power-play rolls heading into the match, having gone 7 for 15 in their three-game win streak after having been 3 for 32 in the six-game losing streak that preceded it.
“I think our power play has been outworking the other team’s penalty-killers,” Renney said. “And I think we’ve been using the whole offensive zone instead of misappropriating that opportunity by leaning too heavily to [Jaromir Jagr’s] right-wing side.”
Actually, Jagr has been far more mobile over the last three games, and has set up on the left-wing boards as well as down low in an attempt to give the Rangers – and their penalty-killing opponents – a different look.
“Jaromir is a threat wherever he is on the ice,” Renney said. “And I think, too, that Sandis [Ozolinsh] has played very well for us on the right point since he’s been here.
“He has poise, he moves the puck well, he’s got a good shot and he has the confidence to participate in that part of the game. He’s made a difference.”
A regulation victory last night would have given the Rangers a fourpoint lead over the Flyers with 13 games to go for the Blueshirts and 12 for Philly. Out of the playoffs since 1997, the Rangers haven’t won a division title since 1994.
“It’s a high-stakes game, no question about that,” Renney said. “It’s a game that conjures up the emotion of playoff-type hockey.
“It’s certainly consequential hockey, which we want to play as much of as we can, because the experience only makes us better.”
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Jason Strudwick, a scratch for the prior three games, replaced Kasparaitis on the blue line. Kasparaitis, who did not miss a shift after sustaining the pull on Monday, skated yesterday and expects to be in the lineup tomorrow night in Florida against the Panthers . . . Rucinsky, who missed the last three games with a left-knee injury, returned last night, bumping Marcel Hossa into street clothes.
