WASHINGTON — As I entered the cramped visitor locker room after Friday morning’s optional skate hour ahead of Game 3 between the Rangers and Caps, my mind’s eye saw me in the first stable on the right. I could see Chris Drury sitting there.
I never imagined Drury, the club’s current general manager. Instead, I imagined Drury, No. 23 and club captain in 2011, bowing his head and speaking sweetly to me after the Rangers lost in the first round to the Caps in five games. It was the last game of Drury’s NHL career.
I walked to the back of the room and my mind’s eye flashed as K’Andre Miller jumped down the middle of the left column, leaning forward and tired after earning 53 minutes and 17 seconds of ice time on a triple for the Blueshirts. I saw Ryan McDonough cut. In 2012, they won the third overtime game with a goal from Marian Gaborik.
Alexander Wennberg finished skating and moved to his spot in the back row after Thursday’s maintenance day, but I had to go inside with Rick Nash in the same vicinity in 2013 after three games where the team scored. I remember having a conversation about sex. Total of 2 goals.
(They got well inside in the fourth and final game in the capital, Game 7 of the first round, recording a comfortable 5-0 victory and advancing to the second round.)
And on Friday, as I watched a dozen players skate and take shots, I peered into the stands behind the Blueshirts’ bench 15 years ago. There, former head coach John Tortorella threw a water bottle at an irate fan at the game. Third period of Game 5 of the 2009 first round.
Tortorella was suspended for Game 6. The Blueshirts shockingly led 3-1 in a series that was trailing 2-7, but lost games 5, 6, and 7, eliminating them in the series.
Rangers vs. Caps was a spring rite of passage from 2009 to 2015, with the two clubs meeting five times in seven years and four times in five years from 2011 to 2015. The Caps won the first two of those matchups, and the Rangers won the last three, all in seven games.
After leading Boston College to the NCAA title, Chris Kreider made his professional and NHL debut in the first round against Ottawa, and played in the second round in 2012 as a 19-year-old on the verge of turning 20. Junior. He logged 26 minutes and 17 seconds of ice time in triple overtime. He ran 7:34 in his next match and 6:57 in the next match. Of course he did.
“I was 19, 20, 21 years old, and for the first few years I was just trying my best not to get frustrated,” said Kreider, who turns 33 on Tuesday. “So it’s difficult to compare the scenario of the team I came up with with this team.
“I have a completely different perspective then and now. I mean, I didn’t want to get in the way of those teams.”
The Rangers are 5-12 in their last 17 games over the past five series. They have avoided elimination twice, once in Game 7 of 2013 and then in Game 6 of 2015, when the Blueshirts rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win Game 7 on Derek Stepan’s extra innings. Won the round with a goal.
The Rangers trailed 1-0 in a potentially elimination Game 5 at the Garden, but Kreider tied the game with a drive from the left circle with 101 seconds left in the season. McDonough won in overtime.
Kreider then scored twice in the first period of Game 6 here, giving his team a 2-0 lead and leading to a 4-3 Blueshirts victory. Like an islander It was 32-0 in the final 14:14 of the third period. Kreider scored in the first minute on a power move from the right side and in the final two minutes on a power-play rebound from just outside the crease.
Some things remain the same even after 9 years, right?
Friday’s game was Kreider’s 20th game of his playoff career against the Caps. He played on a team that won all three games in the series, scoring six goals and three assists. However, this was a new team and it presented a new opportunity for a team that was leading 2-0.
“Twelve years was a long time ago, and 2015 was a long time ago,” Crider said. “You can think about those things. I’m thinking about this game.”
