Moments of truth will arrive for the Rangers over the 48-72 hours the Battle of the Hudson is decided once the puck drops on Game 5 Thursday night in Newark.
Yes, for the Devils as well in this round, which is locked at two-all with visiting teams having won each of the first four games, but this season would be considered a wild success by New Jersey regardless of the outcome of the series.
Of course there would be disappointment if the Devils are KO’d. But win or lose, the Devils have re-established their relevance in the NHL after a decade as an afterthought (if a thought at all) while constructing a platform from which to build with a young team teeming with talent, creativity and charisma.
There is no such luxury for the Rangers. There will be no consolation prizes out the door if the Blueshirts go down in Round 1. It does not matter that they’re playing a very good team that finished third-overall in the NHL, and one the Blueshirts trailed in the standings every day after Nov. 2.
Great expectations followed last year’s run to the conference finals. Greater expectations followed the all-in acquisitions of Vlad Tarasenko and Patrick Kane. The window of Cup contention will not close if the Rangers suffer an early KO to an embryonic challenger, but such a fate would render the season a failure. Almost a waste of time.
The Rangers, of course, are not weighing the big-universe picture. They are not contemplating the consequences of a first-round (or any round) defeat. Nor should they. Their focus must be narrow, and even narrower than winning Thursday.
“Let’s not go into the game concerned with the result. Let’s just focus on the process,” said Kane, who knows a thing or three about playoff preparation. “Let’s just play better. Let’s play well. Let’s have a better effort.
“To do things and the result will follow.”
The Rangers weren’t even close to playing at maximum capacity in Games 3 and 4 at the Garden, yet were 1-1 in the third period of both before losing 2-1 in overtime and 3-1 with an empty-netter, respectively. They didn’t give the Devils a whole lot with which to contend, but they also didn’t give a whole lot to their opponents.
Except, that is, for revived confidence and restored self-belief. The Rangers came home after taking the first two across the river by identical 5-1 scores feeling mighty good about themselves. Too good, maybe.
“Hopefully this will bring us down to earth a little bit, and we can use this to our advantage,” Kane told The Post. “If we come out on the other side, we’ll be a better team.
“I think back to 2013, we [the Blackhawks] dominated the league from start to finish even though it was a shorter season because of the lockout. We won the first round [in five games] but we fell behind Detroit 3-1 in the second round before we won it in seven on an overtime goal by Brent Seabrook.
“That set us up for the last two rounds,” Kane recalled of the second of three Chicago Cups last decade. “There’s always adversity to deal with in the playoffs. Overcoming it makes you stronger.”
Indeed, 10 of the past 12 Stanley Cup champions have faced elimination, and seven confronted multiple must-win games. The Rangers are not facing elimination. They’re not 60 minutes away from extinction.
They’re 2-2 and going back to the building in which they have won twice by playing with far more equanimity that they did at the Garden, where they appeared tentative and tight at the same time.
“Not only in this case but in general, you have the ability to control your mindset whether you want to be positive or negative,” Mika Zibanejad told The Post. “We know we are playing a very good team, and no one would have thought that 2-2 at this point would be unrealistic.
“It was positive for us to talk to each other in the locker room about how we got here, winning both in Jersey. That’s a good thing. We can’t be distracted by outside talk. We know we have to be better than we were the last two games. If anything, I thought we were a little too hesitant.
“But that’s behind us. We have to focus on what we can control and that’s how we play [Thursday].”
Have you heard? The Rangers need more from their marquee guys. They need more from Zibanejad, scoreless and with a mere two shots at five-on-five. They need more from Artemi Panarin, scoreless and a bystander in Game 4. They need more from Kane, who had that one explosive outing in Game 2.
They need more from the power play that gives the big guns swagger that was absent on Broadway. They need crisper, quicker breakouts that would be an antidote to the neutral-zone pressure the Devils were able to apply at the Garden. They need to get pucks and bodies to the front of Akira Schmid’s net.
It is a best-of-three now. Moments of truth are ahead. This is the moment for the Rangers.