New York Rangers get some Hollywood support

The reason behind the surge by the New York Rangers is now clear.

They have received the John C. McGinley bump.

No wonder the Rangers have skated all over the Montreal Canadiens during the first two games of the Eastern Conference final … in Montreal.

McGinley -- whose acting resume includes “Platoon,” “Scrubs” and “Office Space” -- has returned to his East Coast roots. What a long strange trip it has been.

For a while, the New Jersey-born McGinley picked players, not teams. He was a notorious Chris Chelios fan to the point where he often wore a Detroit Red Wings jersey on “Scrubs.” After Chelios retired, defenseman Sheldon Souray filled the void.

Souray underwent season-ending wrist surgery in January, putting McGinley in a fix.

“I fell back on teams, Dallas and the Ducks,” McGinley said Monday at a golf tournament for UCLA Coach Jim Mora’s Count On me Foundation. “But I don’t have a dog left in this hunt. So it’s the Rangers. They have always been my fallback team.”

But McGinley made clear, “I’m talking about the Rod Gilbert Rangers, ‘Gilbert shoots, he scores!’ Back in Newark, when the pond would freeze, we’d be out there playing. The Rangers were my team.”

Amazing … not the Ranger thing, but that a chemically treated pond near Newark could actually freeze.