As for the Rangers, they will face the Panthers in Game 7 at the Garden on Thursday.
1. Oh, and Game 7 of the 2024-25 regular season, not Game 7 of the 2024 Eastern Finals. The Blueshirts beat questionable teams in this 5-0-1 outing that showed off their talent while relying too much on the talents of Igor Shesterkin.
There should be some emotion attached to this. This is a challenge whose importance should not be overstated on either side of the ledger.
Recall that after losing in six games to Tampa Bay in the 2022 conference finals, the Blueshirts opened the 2022-23 season with a gutsy performance defeating the Lightning at the Garden. After this moment of brilliance, its significance was annulled when the club sank into months of mediocrity.
2. But Jacob Trouba's anachronistic hit by Habs winger Justin Barron carelessly entered the zone 7:11 into the third period of the Blueshirts' 7-2 win in Montreal on Tuesday. Raising the temperature across the internet world to a new high – it served as a reminder to Cup champion Paddy Tatts that there is always a threat lurking on the Rangers blue line.
And this time I didn't have surgery on my injured ankle.
Every time Trouba crushes a weaker opponent and the peanut gallery screams for justice, I'm done. Was the hit necessary? Does that have anything to do with it?
It's hockey. It's still hockey. And his hitting was textbook: skating up the ice, tucking his elbow in, then exploding into an oblivious puck carrier. I don't like to blame victims, but the unlucky winger seemed to have no idea where he was or who he was challenging.
Perhaps that's because so few players hit the way Trueba does. Someday, hits like this may be outlawed. But until then, this is what makes No. 8 unique.
His offside pairing with Braden Schneider early in the season proved beneficial for both the defense and the team. Head coach Peter Laviolette said the tandem boasts a faceoff percentage of 72.73 points in the defensive zone, compared to the duo of Quandre Miller and Adam Fox who score 58.06 points on the offensive end. I use it as my main shutdown pair.
Trouba has simplified the game. He makes simple plays. He and Schneider have a 58.30 xGF per natural stat trick in two games with seven points for the Rangers, while Miller and Fox have an xGF of 69.99 in two games with four points.
Physicality was secondary to his game. Until Tuesday. It's just the right time.
3. When Montreal head coach Marty St. Louis complained about the hit, then-Montreal head coach Michel Therrien said Chris Kreider intentionally missed a carry in Game 1 of the 2014 conference finals. I remember him complaining about crashing into Price.
4. If October points are as valuable as March, the same is true for cap space. In fact, space increases during the season, so every penny you save in the first month of the season is worth $1 at the deadline.
And with the return of Ryan Lindgren, the Rangers are dipping into the LTIR pool with eight defensemen, taking away more space with each passing day. According to PuckPedia, the Blueshirts are on track to have just under $472,000 in space by the deadline, but they won't get more space under these circumstances.
The Blueshirts could easily be down to seven players if they put Chad Ruhwedel on waivers, but the leadership and coaching staff have played him in six of the club's 42 games since he was acquired in last year's league play. He seems to be afraid of losing his 34-year-old right-hand man, who has been competing. Deadline — until billing.
In that case, the Rangers would use eight defensemen on their 23-man roster (if all forwards are healthy and the wingers are allowed to return, Jimmy Vesey, who is still on LTIR, will replace Matt Lempe). (He will likely be removed from the roster.) This will have a negative effect on the cap. Losing Zach Jones for no reason. Or sending Victor Mancini to the AHL for no reason.
Pennies and dollars seem foolish to me.
5. Kaapo Kakko may feel like time is standing still on the Rangers' third line, but the Finn might want to smell the roses that comes with being the best third-line right wing in the NHL. I don't know.
Kakko, Phil Chytil, and Will Quill all added dimensions to the game that allowed for puck possession dominance and productivity on the ice. The unit has scored seven goals and kept a clean sheet against the Rangers, with 69.15 goals per natural stat trick and an expected goal share of 71.6 percent per money pack.
This line's expected goals per 60:00 of 5.71 (money pack) is tops in the league among units that have played at least 60 minutes at 5-on-5, with Toronto's Matthew Knies-Auston Matthews-Mitch Marner at 4.95. Ranked 2nd in xGF/60.
As you may have heard, I'm urging the Rangers to build a physical checking line as a third unit that can take some of the strain off Mika Zibanejad in the games he usually finds himself in in the playoffs. You've probably heard that we've been lobbying for years. But this is the third line that the hierarchy has long envisioned, a scoring line supported by a healthy and dominant Chytil.
Quill is a talented left-handed pitcher, and following his four games in the opening game, he has five hits in each of the last five games, a metronome-like hit. Kakko-chan has a big body. Perhaps this could be both a scoring line and a matchup option in the playoffs at the same time.
That will determine much of the season.
