TARRYTOWN – The Rangers’ biggest rivals will always be the Devils and Islanders, with a rich history between the locals and a trio of fan bases that relish beating their neighbors. But if we’re strictly looking at recent seasons, there’s no team that’s challenged the Blueshirts quite like the Carolina Hurricanes.
Their upcoming second-round series, of which the start date has yet to be announced, will mark the third playoff meeting between the Metro Division’s top teams in the last five years. The Canes swept in 2020, followed by a memorable seven-game triumph for the Rangers in 2022, which effectively makes this latest showdown a rubber match.
“They’ve been the standard of the division for the last couple of years,” Blueshirts captain Jacob Trouba said following Wednesday’s practice at the MSG Training Center. “Coming into this year, that’s the team you want to overtake. You want to be ahead of them in the standings. It’s no different in the playoffs. They’ve been a consistently good team for years now. I think we’ve gotten better over the years, and it’s going to be a great series.”
As former Metro powers Pittsburgh and Washington have aged out of contention, New York and Carolina have taken the baton as the class of the division. The Hurricanes captured first place in 2021-22 and 2022-23 before the Rangers unseated them this season on their way to winning the Presidents’ Trophy.
In that three-year span, the Blueshirts have a slight 6-5 edge in 11 regular-season meetings, including winning two out of three this season.
“The games were pretty tight, fairly close to the west,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “But this is the playoffs now. It’s a different animal.”
3 things to know: Rangers vs. Hurricanes second-round NHL playoff series
Laviolette − who won his first and only Stanley Cup as the head coach of the Hurricanes back in 2006, but joked it’s past the “statute of limitations” for that to be a talking point in this series − wasn’t around in 2022, but 14 of the same players remain on the Rangers’ roster and 18 for the Canes.
Fans will recognize many familiar names, but two years is a long time for there to be any carryover effect.
“Year to year, it changes a lot more than you realize,” veteran Chris Kreider said. “They’ve got a different looking roster. We’ve got a different looking roster. Obviously, there are some X’s and O’s things that we do a little differently. There’s definitely some players who have been there for a bit, but it’s the same with us. It’s just kind of the game, but there’s more turnover than you realize. It’s a new series.”
The most obvious change is a new coaching staff in New York, with Laviolette now getting the chance to match wits with his former captain on that ’06 championship team and current Carolina bench boss Rod Brind’Amour.
The Laviolette-led Rangers have taken on more of a blue-collar, hard-working approach to go along with their high-end skill, much like the identity Brind’Amour has fostered in his six seasons as Canes’ coach.
“We know it’s going to be fast,” Laviolette said. “We know it’s going to be competitive. That’s, I think, when we’re at our best. And if you watch them, that’s when they’re at their best, as well. They’re on the attack. They’re checking forward. They’re pressing, pressing. You have to be ready from a speed standpoint, a compete standpoint.”
The Hurricanes have been considered one of the NHL’s fastest, most aggressive outfits for years, both in terms of their relentless forecheck and high-shot volume. Much of their offense developed from that hustle, but the depth of their scoring options has notably improved since 2022.
They did lose center Vincent Trocheck, who defected to the other side by signing with New York that summer. That’s worked out exceedingly well for the Rangers while simultaneously taking an important player out of Carolina’s lineup − “That’s a big piece,” Trouba quipped − but the Canes have grown stronger at several other positions.
Young forwards such as Jack Drury, Seth Jarvis and Martin Nečas have ascended to larger roles, while power winger Andrei Svechnikov has reintroduced an important element after missing last year’s postseason due to a torn right ACL. And in the splashiest move yet, Carolina general manager Don Waddell pushed his chips to the middle of the table by making a rare trade for a rental and landing the No. 1 player available at the deadline in Jake Guentzel.
That’s added firepower to a proven system, but the principles of what they do remain the same.
“They close fast. They move the puck quickly. They throw a lot of pucks at the net,” Trouba said. “It’s just fast hockey. They’ll swarm at times. They can get going, and you’ve just kind of got to keep your cool in your own zone and get the puck out and live to fight another day. They come in waves .”
The Rangers’ veteran core, led by Kreider, Trouba, Adam Fox, Artemi Panarin, Igor Shesterkin and Mika Zibanejad, is all too familiar with that style of play. They struggled to handle it back in 2020, but exorcised the demons in 2022 and flipped the narrative back in their favor. They, too, have their fair share of talented up-and-comers, led by a breakout season from Alexis Lafrenière and continued growth from Kaapo Kakko, K’Andre Miller and Braden Schneider.
Combine all that and you’ve got the makings of an epic series between the teams that finished with the two-highest points totals in the Eastern Conference.
“We know what’s ahead of us,” Trouba said. “It’s going to be a hard-fought, long series. That’s what we’re preparing for.”
Updates on Filip Chytil, Adam Fox
Don’t expect to get much out of Laviolette regarding his lineup in the lead-up to this series.
He set that tone Wednesday when asked if he would keep the same alignment the Rangers used while sweeping the Capitals in the first round.
“I’m probably not going to talk about the lineup,” he said. “I do like the fact that we were consistent through those four games. The series is over, and now we have a new series, a new opponent, and we’ll make decisions based on what we know.”
That includes revealing the plan for Filip Chytil, who’s been practicing with the team for nearly three weeks but hasn’t played in a game since sustaining a suspected concussion on Nov. 2.
He’s believed to be close and hopeful about making a postseason return, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation, who spoke to lohud.com, part of the USA TODAY Network, last week. But if Wednesday’s practice was any indication, the Rangers aren’t going to play that card quite yet.
All four lines looked the same as they did against the Caps, with polarizing rookie Matt Rempe still occupying the final fourth-line spot next to Barclay Goodrow and Jimmy Vesey.
Interestingly, Chytil didn’t take any shifts in his usual third-line center position, rather rotating in with the top-six forwards. The first few came at top-line right wing, where the 24-year-old Czech occasionally spelled Jack Roslovic.
Meanwhile, the defense was down a man with Fox sitting out of practice for maintenance reasons. He took a knee from Washington defenseman Nick Jensen during the first period of Game 4 on Sunday and appeared to be favoring his right leg, but battled through the pain to finish the game.
The Rangers should have at least two more practices before Game 1 against the Canes, with no reason to worry about Fox’s playing status unless his absence extends into later this week.
Vincent Z. Mercogliano is the New York Rangers beat reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Read more of his work at lohud.com/sports/rangers/ and follow him on Twitter @vzmercogliano.
Tags: Rangers brace long series Hurricanes updates Chytil Fox
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