Failing to deliver Cup should not define Nash’s Rangers legacy

Never before and never since has a forward taken at least 80 shots in the Stanley Cup playoffs and scored fewer than five goals. And yet, that was the dubious achievement that stayed with Rick Nash throughout his profoundly mixed tenure as a Ranger — in which he graced New York with his presence for nearly six seasons but left the city, and ultimately the game, with a hole in his résumé as large as his smile and his good heart.

Three goals on 83 shots when the Rangers went to the final before losing an excruciating five-game final to the Kings, in which two of the defeats came in double-overtime and the other in one OT. And by the way, as you most surely know, the total of 83 shots does not include the try on a wide-open net at 9:15 of the second OT of Game 5 that skimmed wide when ticked by Slava Voynov’s stick. A little more than five minutes later, Alec Martinez did not miss.

Big 61 made his retirement official Friday, though the truth is the 34-year-old husband and father of three has pretty much known since the summer that this day would become necessary. Because Nash had vowed long ago he would not put his future quality of life into jeopardy in order to play hockey.

And when post-concussion symptoms lingered months after he had sustained the final brain injury of his career on March 17 in what was just his 11th game as a Bruin following his rental from the Rangers, Nash knew. He withdrew from free-agent contract talks on June 30. Since then, it has only been a matter of finding the right time to make the announcement, which came via a short and sterile statement from his agent.

So it is over, this 15-year NHL career in which Nash recorded 437 goals, 368 assists and 805 points in 1,060 games. Just Alex Ovechkin (639), Jarome Iginla (451) and Patrick Marleau (448) have scored more goals since Nash joined the league in 2002-03 as the Blue Jackets’ first-overall selection in 2002. He scored 145 goals for the Rangers — including 42 in 2014-15 when he carried the team through the winter to its first Presidents’ Trophy since 1993-94.

Yet it never was quite enough, at least on Broadway. The Rangers acquired Nash from Columbus over the summer of 2012 to be the missing link in the quest for the Cup, and now, coming up on seven years later, the club is about a half-dozen missing links away from a championship. So there is that. There is always that in Rangerstown.

On the ice, Nash was powerful and could be dominating and intimidating. At his best, he was a sight to behold. Off the ice, he was, and is, one of the sport’s finest people — a generous and caring individual entirely at ease within his own skin, beloved by his teammates and club support staffs, respected for his professionalism and unselfishness by his coaches.

The hope here is that the Rangers bring Nash back to the Garden to be recognized by the organization and to be acknowledged by the fans. No, The Big Easy didn’t deliver everything for which the franchise had hoped when he was acquired in 2012, but he did what he could while remaining true to himself. He loved being a New Yorker.

A fine career is in the past. These are the first days of the rest of Rick Nash’s life.

L’Chaim.

So how much is the NHLPA willing to give back in its negotiations with the NHL and Gary Bettman in order to allow a minority of players are allowed to play in the Olympics (and World Cup), when the NHL itself has made it an internal marketing priority to participate in the 2022 Games in Beijing?

By the way, according to the Hockey-Reference.com Play Index, four forwards have taken at least 80 shots in the playoffs while scoring five goals or fewer. The three other than Nash did it while winning the Cup. Claude Lemieux scored five goals on 81 shots for the 1996 Avalanche, Mike Modano scored five goals on 83 shots for the 1999 Stars, and Sergei Fedorov scored five goals on 88 shots for the 2002 Red Wings.

Lou Lamoriello has a great history in identifying goaltenders — from Martin Brodeur as a trade-down draft selection in 1990, to Cory Schneider as a trade acquisition in 2013 in New Jersey, to Frederik Andersen as a trade acquisition in 2016 in Toronto, to Robin Lehner as a one-year, $1.5 million free-agent signee last summer.

So though there has been substantial and sustained belief within the industry for months that Sergei Bobrovsky is bound for the Islanders once the Goodbye, Columbus goaltender hits free agency on July 1, that hasn’t taken Lehner’s outstanding work this season into account.

We’d suggest there is nothing easier than going broke trying to bet on what Lamoriello might do.