It’s easy to see the Rangers sailing through the early stages of the Stanley Cup Playoffs as smooth sailing without any major bumps.
And it’s an easy trap to fantasize that life will continue as it is.
After all, heading into Game 2 of the second round against the Hurricanes at the Garden on Tuesday night, the Rangers had won each of the first five of the 16 postseason wins needed to win the Stanley Cup. Ta.
There was never any doubt that they had defeated an offensively challenged Washington Capitals team in four straight games in the first round. And in Game 1 against Carolina at The Garden on Sunday, they led 3-1 after the first period and were in control from start to finish.
So for the dreamers among Rangers fans, there are bound to be some visions of the team rolling through the playoffs without resistance in their heads.
However, no team in NHL history has gone 16-0 in the postseason en route to winning the Stanley Cup.
And even if the Rangers were strong enough (and lucky enough) to end their 30-year drought without a cup, they can’t win 16 straight to get there.
Adversity lurks.
It’s lurking in the next shift, the next game, the next series, if there’s another series. It’s definitely there. There’s nothing more difficult to win than the Stanley Cup.
Of course the Rangers know this, they have key veterans on their roster, they’re led by a veteran coach in Peter Laviolette, they’re a team that’s done it all on the field, and they’re a team that can handle it. It seems that they are making .
When the Rangers held on for the win Sunday after a wild Carolina rush that capped the final score with a 6-on-5 late game, walking through the locker room after the game felt like a midweek regular season game. During December, I felt like I had won.
The atmosphere was natural. There was no sense that anything big had been accomplished.
In one corner of the room, Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin, one of the team’s steadying rocks, told reporters he needed to be better. He’s the same guy he was when he scored just seven goals in four games in the blowout win over Washington.
Other players in the locker room deflected praise by talking in hushed tones about moving on to the next game and the need to get better.
After that game, Laviolette talked about how the losing team, Carolina’s “hair on the skin” would “pump up” for Game 2, and that his team would have to prepare to match that intensity. He said there is.
The Rangers have many veterans from last postseason, a team that lost to the Devils in the opening round of the playoffs when expectations were much higher for the team. That kept them focused and maintained a business-like attitude even after a big playoff win.
“Everyone’s been talking about it all year, not just during the playoffs,” Rangers star Mika Zibanejad, who scored two first-period goals in Game 1, said before Tuesday’s Game 2. This period. There will be adversity throughout this series, but I think we were able to handle it throughout the regular season. It taught us a lot about ourselves and we feel it’s good for us.
“Throughout the last two weeks, [of playoff hockey], we’ve focused on the game at hand. We don’t think beyond that. ”
The Rangers’ mantra in these playoffs permeates every corner of the dressing room, starting with Laviolette and continuing what they did so well during the regular season that they won the Presidents Trophy as the best team in the league. Was that. .
“Adversity is going to happen, but I think we’re a team that knows what’s going to happen, and we know what to do when adversity happens, and that’s just continuing to work, keep our heads down and move forward. Just keep going,” Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider said. Posted before the second match. We got down in the game, but we bounced back from it and found a way. The idea of not quitting and continuing to work is something that is instilled in us. ”
Why is this team immune to ups and downs?
“We have a lot of veteran players, so that affects young players like me,” rookie winger Will Quill told the Post. “In terms of being a pretty mature team, we’re not too high, we’re not too low, we’re staying calm. When we overcome adversity, we’re a pretty cohesive group, so that’s going to help us going forward. It will help us move forward.”
It’s a long road for the Rangers, of course, but their hopes are long and include 11 more wins, including Tuesday night.
