GREENBURGH, N.Y.—The big Brad Richards goal that Dave Andreychuk remembers best is one that many people might have forgotten. It was a long time ago, after all: April 27, 2004, when Richards and Andreychuk were teammates on the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Brad Richards, who was acquired during the offseason, has been at the center of two key scoring plays in the Rangers' series against Washington. Harry E. Walker/Zuma Press

Richards's second goal that night, in overtime, won Game 3 of a second-round playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens, giving the Lightning a 3-0 series lead and, according to Andreychuk, infusing Tampa's players with a belief that they could indeed win the Stanley Cup that year—which they did.

"That was a defining moment. That goal totally changed our complexion about where we thought we were going the rest of the playoffs," Andreychuk, now a vice president for the Lightning, said in a phone interview. "There are playoff players. That takes a special player. He's one of them."

It was that promise of postseason excellence that compelled the Rangers to sign Richards in July to a nine-year, $60 million free-agent contract—a deal that made him the NHL's highest-paid player this season. And if the Rangers can feel secure about anything as they prepare for Saturday's Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Washington Capitals, it's this: In Richards, they have perhaps the league's finest clutch performer, an athlete so often at his best when his team needs him most that the quality has come to define his career.

"He has 'it,'" Rangers coach John Tortorella said. "He just has it."

Tortorella would know. He was the Lightning's coach in 2004, when Richards had 12 goals—seven of which were game-winners—and 26 points in 23 games to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the NHL playoffs. Over his 11 years in the league, Richards has averaged more points per game in the postseason (0.95) than he has during the regular season (0.92), and though his 66 points for the Rangers were his fewest over a full 82-game schedule since he was a rookie in 2000-01, he has retained his intrinsic ability to score or set up a decisive or dramatic goal.

Brad Richards scores the winning goal at the Winter Classic. Reuters

He had nine game-winning goals among the 25 he scored during the regular season, including one with one-tenth of a second left in regulation to beat Phoenix on Dec. 18 and one to cap a three-goal Rangers comeback against the Philadelphia Flyers in the outdoor Winter Classic on Jan. 2. Twice already in this series against Washington, Richards has been at the center of scoring plays that saved the Rangers from defeat. His nifty pass from behind the Capitals' net led to Marian Gaborik's goal in the third overtime of Game 3, and he whacked the puck through Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby with 7.6 seconds remaining in the third period to tie Game 5. The Rangers then won in overtime, 3-2.

"You can see that he kind of glows with confidence out there," Rangers forward John Mitchell said.

After the Rangers practiced here Friday at the MSG Training Center, Richards said that the key to performing well in a game's most pressure-packed moments was to maintain a balance of serenity and intensity so that the magnitude of the outcome does not overwhelm him.

"It's just being patient and not trying to do something that's pretty much impossible and being frustrated over and over," Richards said. "You might get only two chances all game, and they might be in the third period, or they might be in the first period. You don't know. But it's staying patient with that process and not trying to do way too much and try to save the day over and over again."

His explanation jibes with the experiences of other athletes who thrive in clutch situations, according to Lois Butcher-Poffley, a sports psychologist at Temple University in Philadelphia. Richards has a "high level of self-efficacy," Butcher-Poffley said, "which has to do with your confidence and ability to do something. That is, how competent are you? Clearly, he feels very competent in that situation."

That characteristic can manifest itself in different ways. When Richards scored in overtime to beat the Canadiens in the 2004 playoffs, for instance, the goal was a product of his natural imagination and creativity: He controlled a loose puck, curled behind goaltender Jose Theodore, and banked the puck off the back of Theodore's left skate and into the net, as if he were pulling off a trick shot in billiards.

"It's not something you draw up in practice," said Richards, who has five goals and 10 points in the Rangers' 13 playoff games. "It's just instinct."

His tying goal in Game 5 earlier this week at first appeared to be the opposite sort of scenario: a combination of luck and desperation in which Richards was fortunate to find the puck at his feet and sweep it under Holtby. But it was no coincidence that Richards was in that spot on the ice at that time, or that he was the Ranger who scored. "There are certain players who give themselves the best opportunity to make a play like that," Andreychuk said, "and Brad is one."

With 56 seconds left in the game, Tortorella had called a timeout to review with his players a plan for how the Rangers could generate as many scoring opportunities as possible in so short a span of time. Within that structure, Richards had to win at least one offensive-zone face-off and position himself among the thicket of sticks and bodies in front of the Washington net, where his competitiveness and goal-scoring skills would benefit the Rangers most. "It doesn't matter if the goal is ugly or pretty. It's the ability to get the job done," Butcher-Poffley said. "A coach wouldn't send a player out there in the clutch unless he understood the player had that instinct. He's giving him the sketch. The player has to fill in the colors."

Richards ended up winning three faceoffs in those 56 seconds. After the third, he settled to Holtby's right. Amid a net-mouth scramble, Holtby tried to slap his glove down on top of the puck. By then, the red goal light behind him was already on, Madison Square Garden was thundering with sound, and the latest piece in Brad Richards's collection was complete.

Write to Mike Sielski at