We all know the Rangers crashed the party two years ago. It was as if they were on some kind of magical mystery tour of their first two games of seven, coming from behind to win each round before suffering a blowout loss in the conference finals against Tampa Bay. They were happy to be there.
The Blueshirts are back in the NHL’s top four, and there’s little mystery about it. And while the Rangers are obviously happy to be here after dispatching Washington for four games and Carolina for six, this is only the halfway point of the journey.
Many of the key faces are the same as they were two years ago – 13 in fact, they’re carryovers – but the tenor is entirely different, and so are the expectations.
“It’s … different. I think it’s just the context and the situation,” Chris Kreider said ahead of Game 1 against Florida at the Garden on Wednesday. “Some of the personnel are the same, but a lot of the pieces are different too. Every year it’s a different group, a different kind of web of relationships, completely separate from what it was before.”
“But where we are as a team, going into this round a few years ago, we were kind of running on fumes, two very emotional series with come-from-behind wins. I think it’s been a great experience obviously, so I’ve left everything behind, but I feel like there’s a whole other level to what I can do this year.”
The Panthers are an outstanding hockey team that was founded in 1993 and strived to win the first Cup in franchise history. They’ve been dancing the tango of one step back, two steps forward, winning the Presidents Trophy two years ago and losing to Vegas in the Cup Final last year after decades of irrelevance in the hockey world.
Now they are denying their own traditions. They are complete, fast, skilled, big, and full of visionary threats, more so than when Muhammad Ali used the rabbit punch on Sonny Liston in Lewiston, Maine, in 1965. There’s a guy named Sam Bennett who used the Rabbit Punch on Brad Marchand very well.
It will take more time than competing 50-50. The Rangers will have to match Florida’s desperation. There have been many teams in the past where Rangers have turned the other way, and there have been many teams where Rangers have blown the whistle, but this time there will be no white flag at anyone’s door.
The Rangers are skilled, fast and deep, just like the Panthers. I think the Blueshirts will have trouble at times trying to slow the game down at 1-3-1. I thought it backfired in the second half of the Carolina series. The Rangers have been at their best when they played faster and forced the Canes to match them.
Igor Shesterkin, Jacob Trouba, Adam Fox, K’Andre Miller, Chris Kreider, Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Alexis Lafreniere and Barclay Goodrow are among the 13 Rangers retained from their 2022 playoff roster.
But hurray! Of course, the new coaching staff was Peter Laviolette and his staff, replacing Gerard Galant and his assistants last May. Vincent Trocheck wasn’t here in 2022, and Ryan Strome was playing through a core injury during the playoffs — but the biggest difference is in the team’s mindset.
“I think our players rose to the challenge and were ready for any game, not just ours,” Laviolette said. “I know at the beginning of the year there were questions about how to deal with certain teams and their physical strength.
“I think our players did a really good job.”
You can also enlist the support of the Rangers team. They made headlines at last spring’s retirement press conference and have been skating all season. The best-coached Rangers team in living memory is also the easiest to coach in living memory. It is interesting.
“They play an intense game, but they’re not the only team in the league that plays an intense game. An intense game can mean a lot of different things,” Laviolette said. “Sometimes it comes from competing on the puck, sometimes it comes from fighting on the wall, and sometimes it comes from establishing position in front of the net.”
I see!
Two years ago, the Rangers took a 2-0 lead in the conference finals against Tampa Bay without fans in attendance, then took a 2-0 lead in Game 3. However, from that point on, the Blueshirts went 5-on-5 and scored one goal. The rest of the series, and it was on Ryan Lindgren’s drive from the half wall at the end of Game 5.
There was a difference in experience between the Rangers and Lightning. The difference from his last four games in the series is that the Blueshirts simply couldn’t find the back of the net.
But the Blueshirts rushed to the net multiple times against Carolina in six games in the second round, actually scoring nine of their 13 goals at 5-on-5 on rushing or offensive possessions. Two years ago, the team had an allergic reaction to the blue paint. But now they’re making it their own.
I have a different way of thinking. So are the Rangers.
There is heavy lifting behind it.
There is a lot of work ahead.
Two years later, the Rangers reached the halfway mark again.
