Martin St. Louis was there for the Rangers after his mother passed away last week, and now his teammates will be there for him.
Sunday afternoon in Montreal, with the Blueshirts already in Quebec for Saturday’s Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, players and staff will attend the funeral of St. Louis’ late mother, France, who died of a heart attack last Thursday at 63.
The Rangers rallied emotionally around the mourning St. Louis in the second round to overcome a 3-1 deficit to the Penguins, and now that the Canadiens have advanced, the Rangers have the opportunity to support his family in person in their greatest time of need.
“We want to be there for Marty,” forward Mats Zuccarello said after an optional skate in Greenburgh on Thursday. “He’s been tough. He’s been here for the team through these tough times, and I think that’s something everyone wants to do is be there for Marty and his family. He’s our family, too. He’s our teammate. It’s a no-brainer, for sure.”
Coach Alain Vigneault said St. Louis’ funeral was originally scheduled for Saturday, but the Rangers weren’t able to move NBC’s Game 1 time slot of 1 p.m. Saturday after working with the NHL.
“So Marty, being who he is, was able to move the funeral to Sunday,” Vigneault said, referring to St. Louis’ admirable decision to accommodate the conflict.
St. Louis is already home in Montreal for his mother’s wake on Friday night and will not speak to the media until after Game 1 on Saturday. Game 2 then will be Monday night in Montreal before the Blueshirts host the Habs in Games 3 and 4 at the Garden on Thursday and Saturday, respectively, according to the team.
The league will not announce the full conference finals schedule, however, until after Friday night’s Game 7 between the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks. The Chicago Blackhawks have already advanced to the West finals.
And make no mistake: The Rangers are not satisfied simply with winning two rounds.
“This is where we’ve wanted to be,” said Zuccarello, who is about to play in his first conference finals. “(But) nothing’s achieved yet. I think everyone in here realizes that. We want to go as far as possible, and everyone who’s in here wants to win the Stanley Cup.”
Vigneault is well aware that this will be another knock-down, drag-out series, though he also didn’t seem disappointed about the Habs eliminating the Boston Bruins, who denied Vigneault’s Vancouver Canucks the Cup in 2011.
“Montreal, I mean, they’ve just beaten the best team in the NHL,” Vigneault said. “So we’re gonna have our hands full.”
The Rangers, who will hold a full practice in Greenburgh on Friday before flying north to Quebec, also were defiant about the fact they have won just twice in their last 13 trips to Montreal’s Bell Centre. The common response to that question was, as Zuccarello said: “We won there this year.”
Brad Richards, who grew up on Price Edward Island, said on the contrary there is no grander stage than Montreal’s home rink.
“It’s the best place to play,” Richards said. “I’ve been to the Super Bowl. I was at Yankees-Red Sox at the old Yankee Stadium. Game 7. World Series. I’ve played in the Stanley Cup Finals. I can’t imagine any other sporting event that has this amazing an atmosphere. It’s special. It’s very special. For a Canadian kid, for the guys from Quebec, it’s really special. Where I’m from, it’s a lot of Montreal fans, and it’s the closest NHL city in Canada to us, so our whole life was Montreal, and that’s all you got to see on TV.”
It will be just as special for St. Louis, given that the 38-year-old future Hall of Famer hails from nearby Laval, Quebec. But most significant will be his teammates’ presence at his mother’s funeral on Sunday.
“It will mean a lot to be there for him,” Henrik Lundqvist said. “It’s going to mean a lot to him to be up there, and we’re all just trying to be supportive right now.”
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