The Rangers are set up for the future — really they are — with young’uns like Brennan Othmann, Brett Berard, Gabe Perreault and Drew Fortescue set to join the band on Broadway before all that long. Which means that even if this year’s team falls short, the window will not close on this group.
But that is not the rallying cry as the playoffs commence at the Garden on Sunday afternoon with the opener of the 1 vs. 8 matchup against the Caps. There is urgency here. There is a sense that the time has come.
Thirty Years Is Enough.
“I think we’ve proven to ourselves what we are capable of doing,” Mika Zibanejad told The Post following Saturday’s practice. “We don’t need to introduce changes to our system or to our approach.
“We’ve been trying to build toward this all year. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of it. You never know what type of challenges you are going to confront but I think we’ve done a lot of good things through the year that has given us a feeling of confidence.
“We’re as prepared as we ever could be for this.”
This isn’t about last spring’s pratfall against New Jersey, it isn’t about the final four games of the 2022 conference final against Tampa Bay. It’s not about the fiasco against Carolina under the bubble in 2020 and it’s not about being shut out in Game 7 on Garden ice by the Lightning in 2015 any more than it is about being shut out in Game 6 on Garden ice by the Bruins in 1972.
This is not about this litany of disappointment that has too often been in the blood. This is about these 2023-24 Rangers, who won more games than any team in the history of the franchise that’s been playing since 1926. This is about these Blueshirts, who beat back every single challenge they faced during the six-month, 82-game marathon.
This is about these Rangers, who never looked back after taking the Metro lead the fourth week of October and became the best, most playoff-ready version of themselves by, yes, going 4-0 against the Devils; and, yes, going 3-1 against the Islanders; and yes, going into Boston the third week of March and finishing off the 3-0 sweep against the Mighty B’s; and yes, 48 hours later coming back to the Garden to take out the Panthers.
And yes, coming back in the outdoor game; and yes, making Matt Rempe an integral part of the NHL vernacular.
when captain Mark Messier led the Blueshirts to the promised land. NHLI via Getty Images
“I think being the Presidents’ Trophy winners is something we should embrace,” Jimmy Vesey said. “This franchise has been around 98 years and we just set the record for wins [55] and points [114] in a season, so I think we should embrace it.
“No matter how you slice it, I think going through the final stretch where we won the games we had to win in order to finish in that first-overall position gives us some added confidence.”
Yes, we’re talking about the regular season. But when the Metro title, first seed in the East and the Presidents’ Trophy were all in the balance when the Blueshirts took the ice for Game 82, they took care of business and captured all three titles. Now there’s a fourth.
Beginning with his introductory press conference last June after having been hired to replace Gerard Gallant behind the bench, Peter Laviolette identified the vital importance of having a playoff-style mindset from the first day of training camp.
The coach talked the talk and his players walked the walk. I’ve been doing this for parts of six decades and I have never seen a team practice more productively. The Rangers took on a new persona this season. They have been building for this day since the middle of September.
“I think we have come to work to try and prepare ourselves every day not just for the playoffs but for the day you have in front of you, whether it’s a game or practice,” Zibanejad said. “It has been a very focused approach on doing the details correctly.
“Our practices have been good. Obviously, the competitiveness and battle level of the drills have prepared us for this in a different way.”
The Rangers will have to get to the front of the net. They will have to get to the inside. They will have to protect the front of their own net. They will have to be careful to avoid being seduced into being undisciplined at either line.
These are all general principles but they apply specifically to the way the Blueshirts will have to approach these contests against this eighth-seeded opponent who is more about obstructing than creating and gave the league’s best team fits with their neutral-zone lock during the season.
So the Rangers will have to be patient. They will have to be disciplined. They need to go out and take care of business. One shift at a time. One period at a time. One game at a time.
They started on this seven months ago. It’s go-time for the team with the best record in hockey. It’s go-time three decades after 1994.
Thirty Years Is Enough.
