Playoff Tension Turning Bizarre : NHL finals: Ranger Coach Mike Keenan cries sabotage over job rumors before tonight’s deciding game against Canucks.

The plot is getting thicker. So is the tension.

One day before a game that will be the New York Rangers’ greatest triumph or their darkest hour, Coach Mike Keenan accused Jimmy Devellano, senior vice president of the Detroit Red Wings, of attempting to sabotage the Rangers’ Stanley Cup hopes by starting rumors that Keenan will leave New York to join the Red Wings.

Keenan’s charge added a bizarre twist to an already strange series. He had previously claimed “media hype” and biased officiating helped Vancouver win Games 5 and 6, forcing tonight’s decisive Game 7 at Madison Square Garden. A Ranger loss would extend their 54-year Cup drought and make them only the second team in NHL history to squander a 3-1 lead in the finals.

“I think there are people outside who don’t want us to win,” Keenan said Monday. “I think (sabotage) is a possibility. There’s some history there and I’m not going to get into it. (Ranger General Manager) Neil (Smith) used to work for the Red Wings and the Islanders. Jimmy Devellano used to work for the Islanders. It’s not my business. I know what my business is--my business is to coach the New York Rangers, this year and in subsequent years.

“There is a lot of paranoia in the industry and in the league. It’s beyond my control.”

Smith was a scout for the Islanders when Devellano was their assistant general manager. When Devellano moved to Detroit to become general manager in 1982, he took Smith with him.

The two had a falling out in 1989, after Devellano gave the Rangers permission to interview Smith for their GM job, then threatened to revoke it when the process dragged on. As a fallback, the Rangers interviewed Scotty Bowman, causing Smith to fear that he had lost his chance for the Ranger job. He blamed Devellano for interfering, and they have not spoken since.

Devellano said Monday he has no ill will toward Keenan or Smith and did nothing that might jeopardize the Rangers’ chances.

“Neil has gone on and done a terrific job,” Devellano said from Detroit. “I’m proud of him. I don’t have to particularly like him as a friend to say that objectively. But all that’s old hat, and anybody who wants to bring it up doesn’t know the facts.

“I like Mike Keenan. I’ve known Mike for years. We’ve had some chats. He has a great record. Why he would point to me, I don’t know. Somebody may have told him that (I started the rumors). He’s under a lot of pressure.”

Ranger players were smiling about the charges.

“We almost have to thank whoever started that rumor in Detroit. It’s taken some of the pressure away from us,” center Craig MacTavish said.

Not all of the pressure, though. The burden of great expectations sits heavily on their shoulders, the same shoulders that collected a league-leading 52 victories and 112 points while the Canucks were 41-40-3 with 85 points in the regular season.

“I think we’ve known all along there was going to be a lot of pressure on this hockey team to win,” MacTavish said. “That’s good in a lot of ways. Certainly, a lot of guys in this locker room respond well to pressure. We’ve left it to a seventh game, so we may be at the mercy of a bad bounce. It’s not a situation we wanted to be in, after being up, 3-1, but it’s a situation we’re very comfortable with.”

Ranger captain Mark Messier said: “We felt that if we tried to take on the 54-year history of the Rangers (since winning the Cup) and everything that happened in the past, it would be too much for any team. What we’ve done is concentrate on what we have to do as a team to be successful. Our entire season, as good as it’s been and as well as we’ve played, boils down to one game for the Stanley Cup.”

The Canucks come into the game buoyed by having tightened their defensive play and stepped up their hitting. They’ve also minimized the damage done by Messier (one goal) and Brian Leetch, whom they’ve hounded in the last two games and held to one assist.

Keenan had an excuse for that, too. “In Game 5, they took liberties and got away with it. There was a lot of stickwork on Brian and they were preoccupied with him, if you will,” he said. “It was a good game plan and they got away with it. They abused him with their sticks.”

The Rangers, who would have been riding in a parade Monday had they won in five or six games, are looking forward to their last chance at victory. “A lot of players have been part of failure here,” Leetch said. “I have a great opportunity to be a small part of success.”