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lohud.com By Rick Carpiniello - Jan. 22, 2012
The last time the Rangers played a hockey game with somebody other than Ryan Callahan as their captain, Callahan was on crutches.
He was on crutches because, in the biggest game of 2010-11, Game 80 of 82, with the Rangers barely clinging to a playoff spot, they came back from 3-0 down to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins, scoring three times in the final 3:48 to take a one-goal lead, when Boston captain Zdeno Chara wound up for a shot.
Chara, one of the biggest, meanest players in all of hockey, with the biggest, scariest shot, fired. And Callahan slid in front of the puck, fearlessly.
He blocked the shot, broke his ankle, played the rest of the shift, and limped around for the signature, post-victory stick salute on one of the loudest nights of the season.
“I knew it wasn’t going to feel good if it hit me,” Callahan said before playing the Bruins on Saturday in Boston. “(Chara) was walking into a slap shot, and you see who it is. But, at the time, we have a one-goal lead, and we’re fighting for a playoff spot — you’re going to do that 10 out of 10 times. As soon as it hit me, it stung, and I knew it was going to leave a mark, and I was hoping it wasn’t as bad as it was. Unfortunately, it was. And if it happened again, I’m sure anybody in this room would do it.”
Anybody in the room would do it, partially at least, because it’s Callahan’s room now. Callahan was named the team’s captain just prior to this season, at age 26, succeeding Chris Drury, because he embodies the way these Rangers play, because he is what they are about — blocking shots, hitting, scoring, killing penalties, playing defense, whatever it takes. He’s an exceptional skater, a devastating hitter, sort of a smaller version of Adam Graves.
“It’s how he plays, how he handles himself,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said this week. “It’s a huge part of what we want to be. And when you have your leadership group not just talking about it but putting it on the ice and doing it, I think your identity comes more quickly. Everybody joins in.
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