Leetch praises McDonagh, Rangers consistency

LAS VEGAS -- Hall of Fame defenseman Brian Leetch is impressed with all of the Rangers young defenseman, and he even went as far as saying that he sees some of himself when he watches Michael Del Zotto read the play and work hard to get up the ice.

However, the guy Leetch is most impressed with is Ryan McDonagh, the second-year blue-liner that the Rangers acquired from Montreal in the deal that sent Scott Gomez north of the border.

"I love him, yeah," Leetch told NHL.com Thursday from the Bellagio. "I look at him as one of the best skaters that I've seen. Del Zotto and (Marc) Staal and (Dan) Girardi, they're all very good skaters, but you can tell when they're skating full speed. They're working to get there and working to get into position, but with McDonagh's pivots and those just a couple of strides -- just a tremendous, tremendous skater."

Leetch wasn't done talking about McDonagh's skating.

"The way he can move side to side, and the power in those strides, stands out to me," he said later in the interview. "It looks different than I've seen."

The Rangers are also looking different than Leetch has seen in quite a while. He credited the team's ability to win despite not always playing its best as a reason why it is first in the Eastern Conference with 71 points heading into Thursday.

"I haven't seen them play where everybody is firing on all cylinders, and yet they continue to get points," Leetch said. "They're very consistent in their work ethic. They continue to stick with it and stick with it and find ways to get points. They're able to flatline their effort at a very high mark, but they may not have reached their highest yet. I haven't seen them play a complete game with things going right for everyone, but they just keep riding and rolling along."

A big reason for that is Henrik Lundqvist, who Leetch called "the most important guy to come into that organization since Mark Messier."

"People say he's playing better than he ever has," Leetch said. "I think he's played like this from his first year after the lockout right on through.

"What I was worried about is having a great goaltender like Lundqvist burn through his prime years without being able to build around him," he added. "I was nervous that they were not going to stick with the youth, patchwork around them, and maybe hit it for one year. But, they've stuck with those guys. That's the way to do it, and I think that breeds a lot of that team mentality, when those young players are coming up together and they have those same experiences off the ice together. That works well in their favor."

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