Rangers' Nash frustrated by his lack of playoff scoring: 'I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform'
The New York Rangers find themselves on the brink of elimination from the Stanley Cup Final heading into Game 5 Friday in Los Angeles, and if they have any hope of coming back from a 3-1 series deficit against the Kings, they'll need Rick Nash to finally hit the score sheet.
The 29-year-old's lack of playoff scoring has been well-documented: in sum, Nash has scored a grand total of five goals in 40 career playoff games, contributing three in 24 games during the Rangers' current run to the Final. In four games against the Kings, Nash failed to register a single point, and is more than aware of the criticism being heaped on him from all corners.
“Yeah that’s not just from the outside,” Nash told the Daily News. “That’s myself. I have expectations, too. For sure I expect myself to score. This is a frustrating stretch, and I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform, and it’s definitely frustrating.”
Nash's lack of production certainly isn't due to a lack of effort; he leads all players with 81 shots on goal during the postseason, with a playoff-high 141 total attempts to boot. His shooting percentage, however, sits at 3.7, down from his regular season average of 12.4. It's this number that head coach Alain Vigneault hopes to see rise, beginning Friday in L.A.
“He’s doing everything that I think you want from a player,” said Vigneault, “He’s going to the tough areas. He’s shooting the puck. He’s going hard on the forecheck. He’s being physical. He’s creating turnovers. All I can say right now is I’ve got to believe playing the way he is right now, he will get rewarded, and I’m hoping that’s gonna be (in Game 5).”
A good place for Vigneault to help Nash kick start that production may be on the Rangers' struggling power play; astonishingly, Nash ranks eighth among Rangers forwards in 5-on-4 ice time in the playoffs, while the team is succeeding at a rate of 12.2 percent.
Vigneault and Nash need to figure something out soon, or they will quite simply run out of time.