When you think of playoff heroes, you probably don’t immediately think of Ruslan Fedotenko.
If you’re a Tampa Bay Lightning fan, Fedotenko comes to mind thanks to his two-goal performance against Calgary in the 2004 Stanley Cup finals. Penguins fans remember him from being a key forward in their 2009 Cup victory.
Now Rangers fans are getting a taste of what it’s like to have a savvy playoff veteran doing good things for them and as coach John Tortorella tells Stephen Whyno of The Washington Times, making sure Fedotenko was ready for the postseason was a big thing for him.
“When we basically benched him towards the end of the year, that was part of our conversation with him,” coach John Tortorella said. “We knew how important he was going to be for playoffs. We just needed to, I think, get him ready for that.”
Fedotenko was huge in Game 1 for the Rangers, assisting on the first goal of the game and he’s been strong defensively as well. Tortorella is hoping that Fedotenko can bring the same success he managed to bring him when they were together in Tampa Bay. Bringing a Stanley Cup back to New York might just get noticed a bit there.