OTTAWA – So much to savor, so little time to savor it.
“We want to be able to enjoy this for what it is, which is a really important win for us,” Mike Richter was saying after the Rangers’ surprise 6-3 victory on Friday in Buffalo over the Sabres and Dominik Hasek, “but at the same time we know we have work to do tomorrow night so we can’t get carried away with ourselves.
“At this stage of the season there’s really no time to relax. Because as big as one game is, the next game always seems to be just as big, if not bigger. We needed the points tonight, we need the points tomorrow night.
“Every single game is a must for us.”
Here last night the Rangers met the sixth-place Senators, whom they trail by only five points, but who had 22 games remaining to play while the Blueshirts had just 19 to go. So while a win would have propelled them within reasonable proximity of the Senators, the greater value was in establishing some kind of foothold on eighth place. Entering last night’s match the Rangers were tied with Pittsburgh for seventh place, three points ahead of the ninth-place Sabres. Pittsburgh, which has two games in hand, was home to face Boston last night; the Sabres, who had one game in hand, were in Toronto.
“If we keep winning we put pressure on everyone around us,” said Richter, who was quite sharp on Friday after having missed the previous two games with his problem left knee. “I know how we feel when everyone else wins and we’re either off or losing ourselves.”
The Rangers went into last night’s game having won two straight following a 1-5-2 post All-Star fumble. They went into last night’s game flexing some muscle on the power play, having scored three on six advantages against the Sabres.
“It’s definitely been clicking for us lately,” said John Muckler, who despite downplaying the personal significance of his first victory in eight games (1-5-2) from behind the Ranger bench over his former team, certainly savored it. “We always thought that it would get to this point.”
The power play over the first 28 games was virtually helpless, going 9-112, for an 8.0 success (?) percentage. Since then, in the 35 games that have followed, the power play has been 35-142, a success (!) percentage of 24.6, a number that compares quite favorably to the Flyers’ overall league-leading 21.7 percent. For the season, the Rangers are at 17.3 percent, 12th in the league after climbing from 28th in early December.
The Rangers have become a far more patient man-advantage team, more careful with the puck once they’ve gained the offensive zone. They’ve been far, far better at going to the net, setting the screens and creating the traffic that inevitably lead to rebound and dirty goals.
“I’ve said it so many times that the power play can pick a team up or let a team down,” Brian Leetch was saying after the victory on Friday, the first over the Sabres since Dec. 13, 1996. “The power play gave us the spark tonight that really carried us.”
The power play goals were supplied by Mike York, Petr Nedved and Theo Fleury. It was the fifth PPG for York and Nedved each. It was the first for Fleury, his first in 63 games this year, his first in 71 games dating back to last season. When he scored on an Adam Graves rebound from the right side by banking the puck off a prone Hasek at 19:49 of the first period, Fleury did a double-take, then jumped in the air, before pumping his legs furiously as he skated to his bench for congratulations.
“I was excited,” he said. “I was excited to score a goal, period, but I was also excited to score a power play goal, sure I was.
“I’ve been getting a lot of chances the last few games, so for me it was just a matter of working hard and not getting discouraged. I’ve always felt that if I worked hard and did the right things-went to the net, shot the puck, skated-that it would just be a matter of time.
“When a baseball player goes through a slump, you take extra batting practice and hang in and you know you’re going to come out of it. That’s the way I felt. I get paid to score goals, that’s why they brought me to New York.
“Hopefully for the team and for myself, this can be the start of something big.”
Leetch, who was slammed to the ice on a high open-ice second period hit by Mike Peca on Friday, also went into the boards head first by Dixon Ward after stumbling and losing his balance early in the third. He stayed off the ice for approximately two minutes before returning for a regular shift. “Guys were asking me how I felt,” Leetch said. “I told them I felt better before I hit my head.”
