The Rangers know the 2-0 series lead in the playoffs all too well.
As much as it’s a feat to celebrate, which they briefly did after accomplishing it with victories in the first two games of this first-round series against the Devils at the Prudential Center, this Blueshirts team has both rallied from behind and crumbled with the advantage under such circumstances just last season.
That is the kind of postseason experience the Rangers should be able to rely on ahead of Games 3 and 4 at the Garden on Saturday and Monday night.
“You’ve got to win four,” head coach Gerard Gallant said after practice in Tarrytown on Friday. “We know that very well. We were down 2-0 [against Carolina] last year, we were up 2-0 [against Tampa Bay] last year, you just got to keep playing. You have to take it one period at a time, one game at a time.”
The Rangers are more familiar with where the Devils are right now, trailing in a series by multiple games with the odds stacked against them.
After falling behind 2-0 in the second round against the Hurricanes last season, the Rangers went on to even the series at home before pushing it to a Game 7 in Raleigh, where they closed out Carolina to advance to the Eastern Conference Final.
Vincent Trocheck was on the receiving end of the Rangers’ comeback with the Canes in that matchup.
“We got away from it in New York,” the Rangers’ second-line center told The Post. “They exploited it. Their power play was probably the X-factor that killed us. Every time they got a power play it seemed like the puck was in the back of the net.”
It was in the next round against the Lightning that the Rangers built a 2-0 series lead at the Garden, which was partly a result of Tampa Bay getting cold while waiting for the Rangers-Hurricanes series to finish after they swept the Panthers in four games.
The Lightning, with back-to-back Stanley Cup runs under their belt, stormed back with four straight wins to end the Rangers’ season.
The Rangers have had success with closing out opponents they’ve come from behind against. Nevertheless, they have not secured a series they’ve led by two games or more since 2015 against the Penguins.
Last season, a banged-up Rangers lineup ran out of gas. This early in the playoffs, that won’t be a valid excuse this time around.
After Thursday night’s game, Devils head coach Lindy Ruff said he and his team talked about their 0-2 start to this season, when the club looked to be in for another disappointing playoff-less campaign and fans were calling for the former Rangers assistant’s job.
The Devils, who went on to win 20 of their next 24 games after that start, are always up for the challenge, Ruff said, and they’re going to fight to the bitter end.
There’s something to be said about the looseness a team can play with when everyone else has already counted them out of a series.
The Rangers have been in that position many times before, but they also have lost their grip on a series lead.
It always can go one way or the other. It’ll be up to the Rangers to use their knowledge of both situations to their advantage.
“It was tough to play here,” Trocheck said of coming to the Garden as an opponent in last year’s playoffs. “I remember it was loud. Any time home-ice advantage is really a home-ice advantage, that’s obviously big for a team. MSG is one of those places where it’s really a big factor.”