ST. LOUIS — Last year's run to the Stanley Cup final doesn't get the Rangers a single point in the 2014-15 standings, but it does get the team something else — a target on its collective back.
"It's something we've talked about in the room," Marty St. Louis told The Post before Thursday's season-opening 3-2 victory over the Blues on Rick Nash's second goal of the game, this one at 18:10 of the third period. "When you're a successful team and you go into another building, your opponent is going to use that game as a gauge.
"When you play teams that have been there before, you try to measure yourself. That's something that's very important for us to be aware of as we go through the season. With success comes responsibility."
The Rangers were responsible, but not especially sharp. Indeed, they were dominated for most of the final 40 minutes, unable to either generate a semblance of an attack or clear their own end cleanly. In a game of pace that became wide-open in the third, the Rangers were forced to scramble all over the ice.
The victory came with a price, as defenseman Dan Boyle will miss 4-6 weeks with a broken hand, suffered when blocking a shot by Jori Lehtora early in the third period.
It was 1-0 going into the final period before Jaden Schwartz tied it on a rebound at 1:32 when Henrik Lundqvist was unable to hold on to David Backes' right wing drive. Chris Kreider's breakaway at 6:30 made it 2-1 but Vladimir Tarasenko finished an odd-man rush to tie it again at 10:42.
But the Rangers got the winner when Nash — outstanding — converted a nifty backhand feed from St. Louis to beat Brian Elliott from the slot with 1:50 remaining in regulation.
St. Louis (the player, not the city), of course, shifted to center from the right wing position he has played predominantly throughout an NHL career that commenced in 1998-99. Maybe things will change Saturday when Kevin Hayes is likely going to be available after sitting out the opener with a shoulder issue, but in Game 1, at least, St. Louis was coach Alain Vigneault's choice to step in for Derek Stepan, who will miss at least the first 10 matches of the season recovering from his broken leg.
"I understand how to play the position," said St. Louis, who skated between bookend wingers Kreider and Nash. "Generally I like to just go and go hard, but I'm going to have to be more patient; maybe a little more cautious. I have to make sure that I'm there to support my wingers."
Actually, Kreider and Nash were the support system, both using their size and speed to dominate through the neutral zone and in the offensive end on a succession of shifts. It was Kreider's work on a forecheck in stripping Kevin Shattenkirk that set up Nash in the slot for the season's first goal at 4:01, No. 61 beating Brian Elliott with a quick one-timer just off the ice.
The Rangers had the better of the play through the first half of the period, but found themselves unable to break out through a series of shifts thereafter. The Blueshirts turned over the puck in dangerous areas around the blue line and they turned it over deep, with Dan Boyle a repeat offender.
But Lundqvist — who entered the match with a career 0-4 record against the Blues — stood up well, allowing the Rangers to regroup in front of him without damage being done.
The second period was a different story, with the Blues dominating in possession time, pressuring the Rangers throughout. The Rangers were unable to break out cleanly or move through the neutral zone to get coherent entries, but Lundqvist was extremely sharp in allowing his team to maintain its 1-0 lead through 40 minutes.
The Rangers, hemmed in most of the way by a Blues team that exploited its size-and-strength advantage, were actually at their best while a man short for a stretch of 3:32 midway through the period during which St. Louis (the team, not the player) had a two-man advantage for 28 seconds.
The Blues were able to get only one shot on Lundqvist, and that early on the first power play. The Rangers were unable to gain traction from the kill, however, and needed their goaltender — whose glove save on a Tarasenko left wing wrist shot with 5:03 to go was his most dandy — to get through the period unscathed.
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