The Rangers crashed the party two years ago and we all know it. It’s like they were on kind of a magical mystery tour through two opening seven-game series in which they came from behind in each round before crashing in the conference finals against Tampa Bay. They were happy to be there.
The Blueshirts are back again in the NHL’s final four but there’s little mystery to it. And while the Rangers are obviously pleased to be here after dispatching Washington in four and Carolina in six, this represents merely the halfway point of the journey.
So many of the important faces are the same from two years ago — 13, in fact, are holdovers — but the tenor is entirely different and so are expectations.
“It’s … it’s different, I think just the context and the situation,” Chris Kreider said in advance of Wednesday’s Game 1 at the Garden against Florida. “Some of the personnel is the same but a lot of it’s different, too. Each year it’s a different group, different kind of web of interpersonal relationships and entirely independent of the prior.
“But I think where we’re at as a team, going into this round a couple of years ago we were kind of running on fumes, two very emotional series coming from behind. Obviously it was a fantastic experience, we left it all out there but I think we feel there’s a whole other level to what we can do this year.”
The Panthers are an outstanding hockey team who have been building toward the first Cup in franchise history that originated in 1993. They’ve done the one-step-back-two-steps-forward tango for a time now, winning the Presidents’ Trophy two years ago and losing the Cup final last year to Vegas after decades of hockey irrelevancy.
Now, they have disowned their heritage. They’re complete, they’re fast, they’re skilled, they’re big, filled with menace aforethought and have a guy in Sam Bennett who used the rabbit punch to kayo Brad Marchand even better than Muhammad Ali used it to kayo Sonny Liston in Lewiston, Maine, in 1965.
It’s going to take more than competing in 50-50s. The Rangers will have to match Florida’s desperation. There have been a number of Rangers teams that have turned the other cheek and there have been a number of Rangers teams that played whistle to whistle but there can be no white flags upon anyone’s door in this one.
The Rangers are skilled and fast and deep, just like the Panthers. I think the Blueshirts sometimes get into trouble trying to slow games down with their 1-3-1. I thought it backfired over the final half of the Carolina series. The Rangers were 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 holdovers from the 2022 playoff roster.
But Vive La Difference! There is, of course, a new coaching staff with Peter Laviolette and his people having replaced Gerard Gallant 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 greatest difference is in the team’s mindset.
“I think our guys have been up to the challenge and have been able to play our game but also playing any game that’s come our way,” Laviolette said. “I know there were questions at the beginning of the year of how we would handle certain teams and their physicality.
“I think our guys have done a really good job.”
You could call the Rangers Team Buy-In. They talked the talk at their exit meetings last spring and have skated the skate all season. The most well-coached Rangers team in memory is also the most coachable team in memory. Funny how that works.
“They play a heavy game, but they’re not the only team in the league that plays heavy, and heavy can come in different ways,” Laviolette said. “It can come in compete on pucks, it can come from battles on the wall, it can come from establishing position in front of nets.”
Aha!
Two years ago while running on empty, the Rangers grabbed a 2-0 lead in the conference finals over Tampa Bay plus a 2-0 lead in Game 3. But from that point, the Blueshirts scored one goal at five-on-five the rest of the series and that came from Ryan Lindgren’s drive from the last half-wall in Game 5.
There was a difference in experience between the Rangers and Lightning. The difference over the final four games of the series was that the Blueshirts simply could not get to the net.
But the Blueshirts went to the net repeatedly against Carolina in the six-game second round and indeed scored nine of their 13 goals at five-on-five by going to the net on either a rush or off an offensive possession. Two years ago, the team was allergic to blue paint. Now, they own it.
The mindset is different. So are the Rangers.
There is heavy lifting behind.
There is heavy lifting ahead.
Two years later, the Rangers have gotten halfway again.