SUNRISE, Fla. — The Rangers and Panthers have played numerous games here since Paddy Tutts moved here for the 1998-99 season, but one of them may have been noteworthy.
It was a game on Feb. 16, 2000, when Brian Leetch moved from defenseman to left wing, the only game he played in his career as a second lineman. Then-head coach John Muckler wanted Leetch to line up and mark right wing Pavel Bure, one of the most explosive and magnetic players in the league.
Bure didn’t score against Leach, who logged 23 minutes, 47 seconds of playing time on the ice, but the “Russian Rocket” scored his league-leading 41st goal in Florida’s 57th game, making it 1-0 in a 3-0 game at 7 minutes, 46 seconds into the first period after Jan Hlavac failed to immediately replace Bure when he entered the game.
Best laid plans and stuff like that.
Now, with the quarter century mark less than a year away, a crucial Rangers-Panthers matchup will be played here — Games 3 and 4 of the Eastern Conference finals, with Game 1 taking place on Sunday afternoon — that will likely produce even more substantial memories than the aforementioned curiosities about the darkest era in Blueshirt history.
That’s an entirely different issue. The Rangers are in the early stages of building a durable team. They continue to establish themselves as a contender with the flair and the ability to go toe-to-toe with powerhouses like Carolina and Florida.
Friday’s fightback in Game 2 was a combination of will and skill. It was fitting that Barclay Goodrow scored the winning goal in overtime in a tight contest, as he is the Rangers’ most inherently spiteful and nasty player. And I say that with affection.
Here’s the challenge going forward. The Panthers have bad blood in their blood. They come in high, hard and with purpose. They’re big. Dmitry Kulikov and Ryan Romberg could fool a lot of people if they weren’t aiming for Alex Wennberg and Jimmy Vesey’s heads, respectively. Nick Cousins is always on the ball. There are the ghosts of Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk. Their defense doesn’t let up.
This is them.
I don’t know if this is who the Rangers are, but I do know they will try to maintain the physicality they showed on the ice for the 74 minutes and 1 second it took to decide Game 2. This isn’t about heart or dedication. I just wonder if they are built to play against a formidable opponent who excels in hockey battles like this.
Goodrow, who was sneaky during the season and not so sneaky now, is a player born to do this. Jacob Trouba, who deservedly made a game-winning charge with a spectacular outlet as Lomberg was running at him on the forecheck, is a player born to do this. Ryan Lindgren, who always plays on an edge, is a player born to do this. I know Matt Rempe well and I know Will Caille never looks away from a hit. There’s a reason Braden Schneider has been called “Baby Trouble.”
And on Friday, Erik Gustavsson got into every scrum as quickly as he could and didn’t cause any trouble. Oh, and the boisterous Alexis Lafreniere exchanged greetings with Carter Verhaeghe, who orchestrated the Rangers’ first goal by slamming the always-dangerous No. 23 to the ice. And Chris Kreider was hit five times and Adam Fox was clearly handicapped and had a shaky step throughout the game.
The Rangers may be able to go toe-to-toe with Big Bad Paddy Tatts, but a well-functioning power play would certainly give them an advantage. The Rangers deserve a lot of credit for hanging on Friday and for keeping their key players on the helmets when things weren’t going their way and the Blueshirts looked like they were hanging on for much of the game.
But the Rangers are making great use of their power play, and that’s reflected in the results and fuels them. Igor Shesterkin carries them, but so does the PP1 unit. The Blueshirts will be in a physical battle with the Panthers forever if they can’t get out of it with a sprinkling of one or two goals on the power play.
Not only were those two games the Rangers’ 10 shots on Sergei Bobrovsky went 0-for-6 through 11:14, but their next-level power play was actually 1-for-16 over the past six games and 1-for-21 since the middle of Game 2 against Carolina. And why didn’t Vincent Trocheck get a PP offensive zone draw against the Panthers?
Even if we’re not sure the Rangers can maintain the level of physicality necessary to advance, we can certainly say that a dysfunctional power play is not sustainable for this team.
The hard work is ahead, the rangers need to make memories here.
