Ranger Millions Don’t Go Far

Glen Sather’s back was to the wall, an appropriate place for the New York Rangers’ general manager and self-appointed coach to stand as he talked to reporters Friday morning.

“It’s not the first time,” he said, forcing a smile.

His team is in an even more precarious position, and its escape is far less certain even after its impressive 6-2 victory over the Mighty Ducks on Friday at the Pond.

Despite a league-high $75-million payroll -- or $1.27 million per point -- the Rangers are five points away from the last East playoff berth with 18 games left and other teams holding games in hand. They still resemble a rotisserie team: heavy on scorers, light on role players and too often disdainful about killing penalties, blocking shots or taking initiative on defense.

Sather, however, insists they will qualify for the playoffs. He’s so sure, he skipped an optional skate Thursday at the Pond so he could visit his home at La Quinta. And his bosses apparently believe the team is so good, it doesn’t need a serious practice. Madison Square Garden executives James Dolan and Steve Mills laced up skates and wobbled onto the ice Thursday while Mark Messier offered a helping arm and his teammates watched incredulously.

“It’s important for the guys to know who they’re playing for,” Messier said diplomatically.

It’s more vital for them to figure out what they’re playing for and how to get there. They appeared to have a clue Friday, outhustling the Ducks at both ends of the ice and remaining determined after Mike Dunham gave up a soft goal to Steve Rucchin that tied the score at 2 early in the third period.

“If you look at the big picture, it can be discouraging,” said center Bobby Holik, who scored the Rangers’ fourth and fifth goals. “We’ve dug ourselves into a hole and we have to dig ourselves out, game by game. We’ve been putting out fires all year.”

For another $75 million the Rangers could buy the bankrupt Buffalo Sabres and insolvent Ottawa Senators. That could be Sather’s next move if he doesn’t pry Jarome Iginla, last season’s scoring champion, from the flailing Flames for the same mix of warm bodies and crisp dollars he gave Pittsburgh to get the magical Alexei Kovalev on Feb. 10.

“Yeah, I’m convinced we’re going to make the playoffs,” Sather said, echoing the vow he made when he fired the ill-suited Bryan Trottier three weeks ago.

How many points or wins it will take, he doesn’t know. “Our goal is to win every game we’re in,” he said. “If you start telling guys, ‘We’ve got to win three of four or four of five,’ that just gives them an excuse to pick their spots.

“Of course it is [tough]. But if we stay healthy, I think we’re going to do it.”

It seems inconceivable that a team so formidable on paper could be in such straits, especially after seeing the balanced, energetic performance the Rangers mustered Friday against a team that was 8-2-1 in its previous 11 games and had the NHL’s sixth-lowest team goals-against average. Then again, maybe not.

“If you’ve been around all year, no, you wouldn’t be surprised,” said Holik, who was lured across the river from New Jersey last summer by a wildly overgenerous $45-million offer from Sather. “If you see us once a year, you could be surprised. But not if you see the way we’ve played all year.”

They’ve generally played like a team designed to dazzle, a successful strategy in the 1980s when Sather coached the Edmonton Oilers and they could waltz through 8-7 victories and laugh their way to another Stanley Cup parade. But the ‘80s are over and the NHL, to its detriment, is dominated by defense and highly trained goaltenders. Re-creating the Oilers is impossible, and Sather is doomed to fail if that’s his aim.

Duck Coach Mike Babcock grew up admiring the Oilers and Sather. If he saw any irony in the Ducks’ producing a young, confident team with playoff potential despite a budget slightly more than half the Rangers’, he wouldn’t say so. When he looked down the hall at the visitors’ locker room, all he saw were two points the Ducks needed to stay sixth in the West. He said he doesn’t covet the Rangers’ bottomless checkbook or their bounty of world-class players -- with one minor exception.

“I’d like to get Mark Messier’s autograph for my son,” he said.

“I don’t look at what they have. We’re going to focus on what we have and what we do. They have some great players, sure. [But] Disney’s done everything we’ve asked. We have no issue with our payroll.

“We’ve made some drastic changes with our team. We have 12 new players this season, and that’s probably more than they do.”

Given the chance, who wouldn’t want Messier, Holik, Dunham, Eric Lindros, Pavel Bure, Radek Dvorak, Tom Poti and Darius Kasparaitis?

But all at once? With one puck to go around?

There’s a difference between spending money and spending money wisely, a distinction the Rangers haven’t always grasped.

Duck General Manager Bryan Murray acknowledged many of his peers would be delighted if the Rangers miss the playoffs.

“I thought they were at a high [spending] point a little while ago, and they’ve done some things since then,” said Murray, who’s aware of rumors of Iginla’s imminent arrival. “They’ll keep trying until they get it right.”

And maybe they finally have, with Bure regaining his timing and touch after knee surgery and Sather finally willing and able to roll four lines instead of playing the aging Messier more than his contributions warrant. Time is working against them, and it’s the one thing they can’t buy.

“We’re playing decent hockey, pretty solid hockey,” Lindros said. “We got some big saves tonight, our power play looked like it was a power play and we killed off some crucial penalties.

“We can do it. We put ourselves in the position of having to bite a lot, but we can chew it.”