Rangers, Through Second-Guessing, Just Want to Play Game 7 GREENBURGH, N.Y. - There is not much to do about playing a Game 7 except play it, Rangers Coach John Tortorella said after practice Friday. "That's all you have to be ready for in Game 7, is to be ready to play - let's not get convoluted here," he said. And we will be ready to play. That was what both the Rangers and the Washington Capitals were saying ahead of Saturday night's do-or-die showdown at Madison Square Garden - but they were coming from vastly different perspectives. At the Capitals" practice rink in Arlington, Va., the rookie goalie Braden Holtby, 22, was besieged with questions about the birth of his first child, a son named Benjamin, on Thursday. He answered several, then said politely, "If it's not too much to ask, if I could just answer hockey questions." Holtby and the Capitals have already upset the defending champion Bruins in overtime of Game 7 in Boston. If they were to lose at the Garden against the Rangers, it would be seen as the end of a surprising run for a gritty seventh seed. If the top-seeded Rangers were to lose Saturday, it would be seen as a major disappointment, a collapse against a No. 7 seed that beat them at their own game: blocking shots (164 to the Rangers" 93), getting strong goaltending (Holtby's save percentage in this series is .928; Henrik Lundqvist's is .923) and persevering in the face of adversity. "You can't get frustrated or second-guess yourself just because Holtby's coming up with the save or they're blocking shots," said Ryan Callahan, limited to one goal and one assist in this series. The big thing is traffic, try to get the rebounds or not let him see that first shot. Defenseman Marc Staal, whose overtime goal won Game 5 for the Rangers, said: "They always have people back in the middle of the ice. When you try to make a pass to the middle a lot of times their guys are there. You just do your best to at least get it by their first guy, and hopefully it lands on somebody else's stick. The Rangers are 4-0 at home in Game 7"s in team history, including a 2-1 victory over Ottawa two weeks ago. "We went through it a couple weeks ago, so we know the feeling during the day and the lead-up to it," said Brad Richards, whose three goals in this series lead the Rangers. Richards has 14 points in 11 elimination games during his N.H.L. career. "We just can't wait to get going," he said. Tortorella may try to jump-start the Rangers" intermittent attack. On Friday, he promoted the rookie Chris Kreider from the fourth line, where he has languished with ice times ranging from six to eight minutes over the previous three games, to the second line alongside Derek Stepan and Callahan, where Kreider scored a goal and an assist in Game 1. Tortorella said the coaching staff had tried not to overload Kreider with too much instruction. "We don't want to turn him into a robot," Tortorella said. We're going to let him play. Ruslan Fedotenko was dropped down to the wing alongside Mike Rupp and John Mitchell. But in historical terms, that looks like a dangerous line. Rupp scored the Stanley Cup-clinching goal for the Devils in Game 7 of the 2003 finals against Anaheim. Fedotenko has played in five Game 7"s in his N.H.L. career and been on the winning side each time. He is famous for having scored both goals for Tampa Bay when the Lightning won Game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup finals, 2-1, and for scoring the first goal in the Lightning's 2-1 semifinal victory that year. On the ice Friday, Fedotenko scored three times on line rushes, earning big applause from his teammates each time. Was that a portent of what he might do Saturday night? "I'm sure if I score tomorrow, then you will have something to write, about my hot hand," Fedotenko said, smiling. But I was shooting good today. John Tortorella has coached in four Game 7"s in his N.H.L. career, winning three times and losing once, all by 2-1 scores. ... Whichever team advances after Saturday night will do so having played 14 games in the first two rounds. Since the N.H.L. playoffs expanded beyond two rounds in 1968, no team has won the Stanley Cup after needing to play 14 games in their first two series.