Blueshirt Bulletins: Rangers and Devils set to renew the 'Hudson River Rivalry'
A look back on the New York Rangers’ regular season, and a look ahead to their first-round playoff matchup with the New Jersey Devils.
Noteworthy Numbers
The Rangers finished the regular season with a record of 47-22-13. Their 107 points were good enough for fifth in the Eastern Conference and ninth in the league.
The Blueshirts’ goal differential of +58 was fifth-best in the NHL, and they finished twelfth overall in goals-for and fourth in goals-against.
On special teams, Gerard Gallant’s squad ended with the league’s seventh-best power play and thirteenth-best penalty kill.
It is worth noting, this marks the first time the Rangers have had back-to-back seasons with over 105 points since the early 1970s, and their mere 22 regulation losses this year are tied for the fewest they have had in an 82-game season.
The only other time in which they suffered just 22 regulation defeats was the 2014-2015 campaign, in which the Blueshirts won the Presidents’ Trophy and ultimately lost in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Calendar Comparison
To add some context, last year’s Rangers finished with 110 points and a record of 52-24-6. They had a goal differential of +47, and they wound up ninth in goals-for and second in goals-against. The 2021-2022 Blueshirts had the league’s fourth-best power play and seventh-best penalty kill.
While the regular season numbers favor last year’s team, the current Rangers seem to be hitting their stride at the right time.
In the 2021-2022 season, the Blueshirts’ best stretch came from late October through early December, when they went on a 17-3-2 run.
This year, the Rangers enter the playoffs having gone 36-12-8 since Jacob Trouba’s season-altering helmet toss on December 3rd.
Overtime Obsessed
The Blueshirts had 23 contests go to overtime this year, which was tied for the second-most in the league.
Interestingly, their December turnaround was partly aided by the leveling out of their fortunes in the extra session.
After winning just one of their first six overtime games, the Rangers went on to win nine of their remaining 17 contests that needed extra time.
As for what all of this means going forward, the answer is likely nothing. Perhaps the overtime experience will serve the Blueshirts well, as they are accustomed to playing in tight games. Perhaps it suggests that this team struggles to close out games in regulation, which would prove costly in the postseason.
Regardless, playoff overtime is a whole different beast than the three-on-three gimmick in which the Rangers largely struggled.
Dynamic Duo
Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad became the first two Rangers teammates to both eclipse 90 points in the same season since Mark Messier and Brian Leetch did so in 1991-1992.
For Panarin, it was his fourth consecutive season leading the Blueshirts in scoring, as he has done so every year since arriving on Broadway. It feels like it has gotten to the point where his contributions, a gaudy 341 points in 268 regular season games with New York, have become underappreciated.
That development likely stems from the 31-year-old’s disappointing, highly-scrutinized performance in last year’s playoffs, when he notched just three goals and four assists at even strength across 20 contests.
Panarin, who had previously been a strong postseason performer with the Columbus Blue Jackets, looks to be on a mission to change the narrative in the coming weeks.
The Rangers will certainly need more from Panarin this year, but make no mistake, Zibanejad is this team’s engine.
For all of Panarin’s accomplishments, he is Robin and Zibanejad is Batman.
The Rangers are going to need No. 93 at the top of his game if they are going to make noise in May.
Deadline Dynamite
The additions of Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko were always made with an eye toward the postseason, thus it is time for the Rangers’ blue-chip newcomers to rise to the occasion.
This duo brings a combined four Stanley Cups and 226 games of playoff experience. In 90 career playoff games, Tarasenko has scored 41 goals, and Kane has registered 132 points in his 136 career postseason contests.
Tarasenko, who has settled in and fit quite nicely, will look to build off of his strong finish to the regular season.
With Kane, the early returns have been uninspiring, but none of what has transpired thus far means anything.
The hope is that the future Hall of Famer, who has been managing a nagging hip injury, has not lost a step and has just been saving it up for the playoffs.
Kane is known for being at his best when the lights are the brightest.
It is time for him to show New York why they call him “Showtime.”
Marquee Matchup
The Rangers and the New Jersey Devils are set for what should be a battle. These two teams are quite evenly matched, as evidenced by several regular season figures including the fact that the higher-seeded Devils had just two more regulation wins than the Blueshirts.
The Devils stole three out of these teams’ four regular-season matchups, but only one game was decided by more than one goal and two of them even went to overtime.
The lone post-trade-deadline contest between these teams came on March 30th in New Jersey, resulting in a 2-1 Devils victory.
The Rangers’ win over the Devils came in December with Filip Chytil scoring the overtime winner at Madison Square Garden.
In three of these teams’ four meetings, the Rangers cashed in on the power play, and they surrendered two power-play goals to the Devils across that span.
Chris Kreider scored three times against New Jersey this season, and he has posted more goals and points against the Devils in his career than any other NHL team. Kreider has 21 goals and 38 points in 46 regular season games against New Jersey.
Kreider is also the only Ranger that was on the roster when they last faced the Devils in the playoffs back in 2012. New Jersey eliminated the Rangers in six games to advance to the Stanley Cup Final. In that series, Kreider netted the fourth, fifth and sixth goals of his career.
Now, Kreider is tied with Rod Gilbert for the most playoff goals in Rangers’ history. He is also the franchise’s all-time leader in playoff game-winning goals.
Dainty Devils
The major advantage that the Devils have over the Rangers is their speed. New Jersey is one of the league’s top teams off the rush, as the quickness in which they transition from defense to offense is impressive.
With the Rangers likely trying to play a more careful, structured game, it will be interesting to see how the Devils’ style translates to the playoffs.
The Blueshirts, once seen as a similarly young and speedy team, have quietly morphed into a bigger, more physical group, which will likely be a point of emphasis for them in this series.
Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt, two of the Devils’ top offensive weapons, are listed at under six feet and are known to shy away from contact.
Guys like Jacob Trouba, Ryan Lindgren, Niko Mikkola, Vincent Trocheck, Chris Kreider and Vladimir Tarasenko will likely be tasked with trying to knock those guys off their game early and often in this series.
Look for the Rangers to try to use their physicality and playoff pedigree to rattle the extremely young and inexperienced Devils. Gerard Gallant knows that he cannot afford for their dangerous opponent to get comfortable.
Cup Conviction
It is tough to predict what lies ahead for the Blueshirts, but one thing is for sure: This team is laser-focused on winning the 2022 Stanley Cup.
There will not be any moral victories. There will not be any excuses. The goal, and even the expectation, is not just to make a run, but to win it all.
There is no other ending that would entail a successful season for this group.
Even from the outside, the intensity is palpable. This team is locked in, perhaps to a fault.
For these reasons, this group is under immense pressure. Everyone inside and outside of the building knows that the time is now.
A first-round exit would bring sweeping changes.