First things first, Mika Zibanejad was saying after the Rangers became the primary team within the NHL to clinch a playoff spot by virtue of Tuesday’s wild and zany 6-5 time beyond regulation overcome the Flyers on the Garden.
As in first place.
“Carolina has won the division, what, three years in a row?” No. 93 asked rhetorically. “We would like it.
“With all of the work we’ve put on this season, we’re right there and we would like to win the division. In fact.”
There are 10 games to go and the division lead is three points over Carolina — with a game in hand — following the ’Canes defeat in Pittsburgh that served as a reminder that there’s a reason teams actually play the games.
The profit that accrues to a division winner is solely the guarantee of home-ice advantage through the second round, but there can be a psychological factor likely much more meaningful than a Game 7 on the Garden if the Rangers can close this out.
The Rangers have won three in a row and five out of six in extending the heater they’ve been on because the game before the All-Star break. After opening the season 18-4-1, they’re 19-4-1 since Jan. 27.
They’ve overcome the season-long absence of Filip Chytil and the season-ending injury sustained by Blake Wheeler in the midst of February. They navigated through Igor Shesterkin’s dicey winter. They at the moment are playing without three of their six regular defensemen.
Yet, they’ve persevered.
Yet, they’ve prospered.
And so they are within the playoffs for the third straight season and fifteenth of 19 within the hard-cap era, missing only in 2010, 2018, 2019 and 2021. Yes, 16 teams get in every yr so which may not seem much of an accomplishment but — hello — Buffalo has been out since 2011, the Senators have been out since 2017, and sometimes a rebuild doesn’t include the power to sign Artemi Panarin and trade for Jacob Trouba.
This matches the 2011-12 Black-and-Blueshirts for the franchise’s earliest clinch within the hard-cap era that commenced in 2005-06. This can be a luxury for the club and for head coach Peter Laviolette, whose hiring within the aftermath of Gerard Gallant’s dismissal was derided in lots of quarters and greeted with retread fatigue and skepticism in others.
“Based on the season we’ve had, in some unspecified time in the future there’s an assumption that you just’re going to get in and so it’s not about that anymore,” Laviolette said after chalking up the 800th victory of his NHL coaching profession. “It’s about playing the proper way and feeling good about your game as you approach the playoffs.”
The Flyers, hanging on to a spot, were desperate throughout this game that had greater than a touch of pond hockey to it. Laviolette broke up the lines in the course of the second period, using each Artemi Panarin — who had three assists to raise him over the 100-point barrier to 102 — and Alexis Lafreniere on lines centered by Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck. Kaapo Kakko moved around. Will Cuylle didn’t get a number of ice within the third period. Matt Rempe got none because the coach cut down the bench.
Zibanejad played with impressive zip on this one, wiring one in on the facility play for just his second with the man-advantage within the last 15 games. Lafreniere scored twice within the third period to spice up his profession high to 21 goals.
“It’s hard and making the playoffs obviously is a step in the proper direction for us,” said No. 13. “But there’s still a number of work to do and we all know that.”
Laviolette bumped Jack Roslovic to the left on Trocheck’s line for numerous shifts within the third when Panarin was up with Zibanejad and either Lafreniere or Chris Kreider. It appeared as if the top coach was running a lab through which he might experiment the remainder of the way in which.
But perhaps not after hearing Laviolette tell it.
“I feel something fresh might be a superb thing,” the top coach said. “If there’s the identical thing for a month after which on the thirty second day it’s different, there might be somewhat bit of pleasure.
“But for me, I feel I’d reasonably persist with what we’ve done. I don’t want to alter an excessive amount of after the yr has gone in a direction we’d be glad with thus far. I don’t wish to move things around simply to try things.
“I’d prefer to get back to what we all know and what we all know works.”
The Rangers have worked to grow to be the primary team to 100 points and the primary team to make the playoffs. It has been a bravura performance by this team that seemed adrift immediately following last spring’s first-round defeat to the Devils. They lead the Metro by three points and lead the league by one point over the Bruins, who’ve only nine to go.
“I don’t know that there was much of a celebration but that is what every team is fighting for,” said Zibanejad. “I might say we now have greater goals but when you need to lift the Stanley Cup, you’ve got to get into the playoffs first.”
Done.
First things first, Mika Zibanejad was saying after the Rangers became the primary team within the NHL to clinch a playoff spot by virtue of Tuesday’s wild and zany 6-5 time beyond regulation overcome the Flyers on the Garden.
As in first place.
“Carolina has won the division, what, three years in a row?” No. 93 asked rhetorically. “We would like it.
“With all of the work we’ve put on this season, we’re right there and we would like to win the division. In fact.”
There are 10 games to go and the division lead is three points over Carolina — with a game in hand — following the ’Canes defeat in Pittsburgh that served as a reminder that there’s a reason teams actually play the games.
The profit that accrues to a division winner is solely the guarantee of home-ice advantage through the second round, but there can be a psychological factor likely much more meaningful than a Game 7 on the Garden if the Rangers can close this out.
The Rangers have won three in a row and five out of six in extending the heater they’ve been on because the game before the All-Star break. After opening the season 18-4-1, they’re 19-4-1 since Jan. 27.
They’ve overcome the season-long absence of Filip Chytil and the season-ending injury sustained by Blake Wheeler in the midst of February. They navigated through Igor Shesterkin’s dicey winter. They at the moment are playing without three of their six regular defensemen.
Yet, they’ve persevered.
Yet, they’ve prospered.
And so they are within the playoffs for the third straight season and fifteenth of 19 within the hard-cap era, missing only in 2010, 2018, 2019 and 2021. Yes, 16 teams get in every yr so which may not seem much of an accomplishment but — hello — Buffalo has been out since 2011, the Senators have been out since 2017, and sometimes a rebuild doesn’t include the power to sign Artemi Panarin and trade for Jacob Trouba.
This matches the 2011-12 Black-and-Blueshirts for the franchise’s earliest clinch within the hard-cap era that commenced in 2005-06. This can be a luxury for the club and for head coach Peter Laviolette, whose hiring within the aftermath of Gerard Gallant’s dismissal was derided in lots of quarters and greeted with retread fatigue and skepticism in others.
“Based on the season we’ve had, in some unspecified time in the future there’s an assumption that you just’re going to get in and so it’s not about that anymore,” Laviolette said after chalking up the 800th victory of his NHL coaching profession. “It’s about playing the proper way and feeling good about your game as you approach the playoffs.”
The Flyers, hanging on to a spot, were desperate throughout this game that had greater than a touch of pond hockey to it. Laviolette broke up the lines in the course of the second period, using each Artemi Panarin — who had three assists to raise him over the 100-point barrier to 102 — and Alexis Lafreniere on lines centered by Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck. Kaapo Kakko moved around. Will Cuylle didn’t get a number of ice within the third period. Matt Rempe got none because the coach cut down the bench.
Zibanejad played with impressive zip on this one, wiring one in on the facility play for just his second with the man-advantage within the last 15 games. Lafreniere scored twice within the third period to spice up his profession high to 21 goals.
“It’s hard and making the playoffs obviously is a step in the proper direction for us,” said No. 13. “But there’s still a number of work to do and we all know that.”
Laviolette bumped Jack Roslovic to the left on Trocheck’s line for numerous shifts within the third when Panarin was up with Zibanejad and either Lafreniere or Chris Kreider. It appeared as if the top coach was running a lab through which he might experiment the remainder of the way in which.
But perhaps not after hearing Laviolette tell it.
“I feel something fresh might be a superb thing,” the top coach said. “If there’s the identical thing for a month after which on the thirty second day it’s different, there might be somewhat bit of pleasure.
“But for me, I feel I’d reasonably persist with what we’ve done. I don’t want to alter an excessive amount of after the yr has gone in a direction we’d be glad with thus far. I don’t wish to move things around simply to try things.
“I’d prefer to get back to what we all know and what we all know works.”
The Rangers have worked to grow to be the primary team to 100 points and the primary team to make the playoffs. It has been a bravura performance by this team that seemed adrift immediately following last spring’s first-round defeat to the Devils. They lead the Metro by three points and lead the league by one point over the Bruins, who’ve only nine to go.
“I don’t know that there was much of a celebration but that is what every team is fighting for,” said Zibanejad. “I might say we now have greater goals but when you need to lift the Stanley Cup, you’ve got to get into the playoffs first.”
Done.
