The regular season ended, and for the Rangers the days passed by like ellipses, a cliffhanger, a tantalizing pause bridging all that has happened with all that they hope is still to come.
It had been 21 years, after all, since they entered the playoffs as the best team in the N.H.L., and when the puck was dropped on Thursday to begin their first-round series against Pittsburgh they skated with fury and purpose, as if striving to live up to the expectations heaped upon them — that they have heaped upon themselves.
The Rangers eked past the Penguins, 2-1, in a game that unspooled tense and taut, far more competitive than the first 15 minutes — the first 28 seconds, really — suggested.