from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

People just don’t expect him to come up with the big goal anymore.

Well, people not named Richard McLaren Nash.

People who weren’t paying attention Wednesday night.

Because after getting off a nine-game schneid with a back-to-the net backhand in New Jersey on Tuesday, Nash scored the type of spectacular goal to put the Rangers up 2-1 on the Islanders early in the second period of a game he Blueshirts lost, 3-2, at the Garden in a seventh straight defeat at home while dropping to 5-6-2 in their past 13.

It was a display of talent and power as Nash drove in from the right wall and rode off a flailing Thomas Hickey before, while falling down, beating Thomas Greiss. It was Nash, who has the same array of skills as he did as an 18-year-old, first-overall in 2002, filling what he recognizes as his job description.

“I’m here to score goals. I get paid to score goals,” Nash told The Post before the game. “I’m supposed to provide offense. That’s what the team expects of me. That’s what I expect of myself.”

Indeed, Nash regularly grimaces when complimented for his work on the defensive side of the puck or for having imposed his will against opposing defensemen for shifts at a time when the plaudits follow games in which he has been held off the sheet.

“Because that’s not good enough,” said this unfailingly pleasant man and selfless teammate. “I take pride in my defensive game and in being a complete player, but I know why I’m here and that’s not it.”

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Watch the Nash goal from last night below...