RALEIGH, NC — Remember all that talk about how the Rangers needed guts?
It was less than a year ago, so it still seems like a fresh narrative. At the end of last season, the way the Rangers lost five of their last six games, which included three shutouts, against physical teams like the Islanders, Capitals and Bruins only made the notion that much stronger in the offseason.
Yet when the Rangers took to the ice against the Hurricanes in Game 5 of the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs on Thursday night, the story of lack of toughness seems like a lifetime.
That’s because of the Rangers’ commitment to the organization’s mantra of being tough to play against, their conscious effort to stand up for teammates and players, new and old, finding ways to incorporate some grunt into their individual games. .
Jacob Trouba has been at the forefront of it all. As the veteran defenseman has grown more comfortable during his three seasons in New York, Trouba has steadily become the physical presence at back that the Rangers always hoped he would be.
“He really epitomizes the way we want to play and he does it consistently,” Chris Kreider said earlier in the season.
There was a revenge hit on Max Domi in Game 4 for the Hurricanes’ late fourth-row cross-check on Ryan Lindgren after Game 3. The monstrous hit had Steven Lorentz starting throwing punches and, in turn, getting hit. an instigator penalty that gave the Rangers a power play, which they used to take a 1-0 lead en route to their 4-1 series-tying victory at the Garden on Tuesday night.
Who could forget how Trouba took down the Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon and lit up the Predators’ Luke Kunin earlier in the season? Each were momentum-changing hits that the Rangers fed on.
“The hit was good,” fellow defenseman Justin Braun said of Trouba’s hit on Domi. “Her response from him after that, you know, gets the guys going. It’s maybe one of the best right now at the time of those hits. Catching the boys, they must know when it’s out there. If you don’t, you could be in trouble.
“When you can have that physicality, you’re not going to get kicked out of a game. It’s huge for the whole bench.”
Apparently Trouba has always had that part of their game, it’s finally coming to light. The additions of Ryan Reaves and Barclay Goodrow, who has been out since Game 1 of Round 1 with a suspected broken ankle, has helped spread that biting style of play through the rest of the lineup.
Reaves finished third in the NHL in hits with 279 during the regular season. While it’s the name most opponents look for, it sometimes seems like teams forget about Trouba, who had the third-most hits in the league this postseason heading into Thursday night’s game at PNC Arena.
His physical game has been contagious. Reaves and 20-year-old Alexis Lafreniere led the Rangers in hits in Game 4 with five apiece. K’Andre Miller, Trouba’s second-year defensive partner, has also added some meanness to his game. We found out that rookie Braden Schneider can also pack a punch, and Ryan Lindgren apparently gets tougher with age.
“I think you’re just not retracting the physical game,” Braun said of how he would define gritty hockey. “The guys start putting on their visors, you guys go right at him. Even if you get knocked down, you’re getting up. You see brave teams blocking shots, you see Motter [Tyler Motte] and copper [Andrew Copp] doing that night after night. other guys, [Adam Fox] even eating like five [shots] in third period the other night. He is our highest rated D-man and he is doing it. It’s amazing to see.”
Gone are the days of Rangers being physically abused. Worries about hesitant reactions to low shots are gone. The Rangers are tough, in every sense of the word, and it has become part of their identity.
“Some of the players that we brought in, we wanted to add a little more physicality to our game because they didn’t think the team was tough enough,” head coach Gerard Gallant said. “I think we’ve added that.”
Reference-nypost.com