The playoffs won't be a referendum on the season wherein the Rangers received 52 video games, completed with the seventh-best report within the league and clinched their first playoff spot in 5 years with ease.
This 82-game tour was a smashing success wherein the Blueshirts exceeded all rational expectations underneath the management of a brand new regime that includes Chris Drury within the govt suite and Gerard Gallant behind the bench.
Nothing can undo that, simply in the best way that the first-round, four-game sweep by Montreal in 1967 (Berenson!) after 4 years out of the playoffs or the first-round, four-game sweep by New Jersey in 2006 after seven years wandering by means of the wilderness neither ruined these seasons nor impeded progress.
There shall be disappointment, nevertheless, if the Blueshirts don't advance previous the primary spherical towards the Penguins that commences on the Backyard on Tuesday. Deep disappointment. The membership’s efficiency from October by means of April has elevated expectations.
And correctly so, I would add, even when Gallant did his greatest to keep away from being trapped into setting that type of outcomes bar for his group.
“I feel we’re nearly as good as anyone within the playoffs and I feel anyone within the playoffs can beat us,” mentioned the coach, guaranteeing he wouldn't make the again web page. “I actually consider, can we win towards Pittsburgh? Yeah, I consider that.
“Are we favored towards Pittsburgh? I don’t actually care about that. I feel we will make a run, I don’t know if we’re going to, however I feel we now have nearly as good an opportunity as anyone else.”
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However the match will in giant measure be a referendum on whether or not the Blueshirts’ high gamers can adapt their video games that flourish on the regular-season Autobahn to the stop-and-go driving in rush-hour site visitors that dominates the playoffs.
It takes a village to win the 16 video games essential to hoist the Stanley Cup however it additionally takes a group’s elite gamers being elite. That's the accountability, if not burden, Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Ryan Strome and Adam Fox, to quote 4 vital upper-echelon athletes, will confront this postseason.
Or perhaps this ought to be framed as neither a accountability nor burden. Perhaps this ought to be perceived as a possibility for these athletes to take the subsequent step of their estimable careers by making their mark when it actually counts.
None of them did within the three-game qualifying-round sweep by Carolina underneath the bubble in Toronto in 2020 that adopted the league’s four-month pause in response to the pandemic. The consequences of the trouncing and the previous entrance workplace’s inexplicable refusal to reply to it, carried into final season and, as I wrote many instances, was on the root of the group’s issues.
However that was a singular scenario. It's not honest to evaluate the readiness of Panarin, Zibanejad, Strome or Fox for any such enterprise off evaluations of their postseason work in 2020. The Rangers’ greatest gamers within the bubble have been most likely Kaapo Kakko and Brett Howden. This, although, will symbolize a good check.
“I don’t hear something within the locker room concerning the bubble, perhaps I [don’t understand] English sufficient,” Panarin, who's at 100% well being, mentioned with a smile whereas talking English. “We most likely tried to neglect that, however be taught one thing too.
“It was a special scenario, enjoying within the bubble with out followers and all that stuff and it [was] the playoffs however not the playoffs, [and we] performed three video games. Proper now it’s completely different.”
It's all the time a problem to play looking-good hockey within the playoffs. It is going to be for Panarin, who has 26 factors (9-17) in 27 playoff video games not counting the bubble. The winger recorded 11 factors in 10 video games for Columbus in 2018-19, placing up 5 factors (2-3) within the stunning opening-round sweep of Tampa Bay earlier than posting six factors (3-3) within the ensuing six-game defeat to the Bruins. He's conscious of and ready for the battle.
Panarin was requested whether or not he believes that the highest gamers need to elevate their video games within the playoffs.
“For certain,” he answered. “I feel we’re prepared for that and are deep sufficient in high gamers.”
However then the endlessly intriguing 30-year-old added a caveat. “I can’t say one thing like [I am going to elevate] as a result of I attempt to play exhausting each recreation as a lot as I can, so it’s exhausting to raise extra.”
This shall be a brand new expertise for this band of Rangers, who're untested on this atmosphere. They must adapt to closed specific lanes and do grunt work. The power of Panarin, Zibanejad, Strome and Fox, specifically, to thrive underneath these situations will in giant measure dictate the group’s success.
The Rangers took important steps this yr. Now we'll discover out whether or not this group can take the most important step of all.
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