The playoffs are about to begin now in earnest for the Rangers.
Whenever the Game 1 date between the Rangers and Hurricanes in their second-round meeting is announced by the NHL, that’s when the Rangers’ chase for a first Stanley Cup in 30 years gets real.
Yes, the Rangers have played four games since the end of the regular season. But those games came against a limited Washington Capitals team that some would argue didn’t belong in the postseason, having allowed 37 more goals than it scored in the regular season.
You play whoever’s on your schedule, and you make no apologies for it. So, the Rangers owe no one an apology for sweeping the Capitals in the opening round.
But the Capitals were an offensively challenged team with an inexperienced goaltender facing a more explosive and experienced Rangers team that happens to have one of the best netminders in the game and has much more realistic goals about raising the chalice in June.
So, now the cost of doing business rises for the Rangers in this round against a Carolina team that finished just three points behind them in the Eastern Conference’s Metropolitan Division and finished off the Islanders in five games Tuesday night.
The Hurricanes have been the class of the division the past couple of years until the Rangers captured the Presidents’ Trophy this season.
In the Hurricanes, the Rangers face the challenge of transitioning their game to combat a more speedy and skilled offensive team after slogging through a series against a Capitals team that was physical just to be physical in an effort to slow down the more skilled Rangers.
Among the Capitals’ only true threats to score goals were their two aging stars far past their respective primes in Alex Ovechkin, who was rendered goal-less and invisible in the series, and T.J. Oshie, who made more news when he was sent to concussion protocol after a hit by Rangers leading scorer Artemi Panarin in Game 2. Dylan Strome was Washington’s leading scorer during the regular season with 67 points and was a nonfactor.
It’s a gross understatement to say the Hurricanes present a few more challenges to the Rangers’ defense than the Capitals. Carolina has five players with 50 or more points — including Sebastian Aho with 36 goals, Seth Jarvis with 33, Teuvo Teravainin with 26, Martin Necas with 24 and Andrei Svechnikov with 19.
Even defenseman Brady Skjei, the former Ranger, has 13 goals and 34 assists for 47 points, which would make him the fourth-leading scorer on the Washington roster.
The Capitals ranked 28th among 32 teams with 220 goals scored in the regular season. The Hurricanes ranked seventh with 279.
So, as the Rangers returned to practice Wednesday after coach Peter Laviolette gave the players two days off, much of the focus was turned to stopping the Carolina attack.
“They can be a pain to play against if you’re not breaking their pressure,’’ Rangers forward Jimmy Vesey said after practice. “They play with a lot of pace and a lot of forecheck, not necessarily bone-crunching hits. So, we’ve got to be mentally sharp and be ready for that.’’
Rangers forward Alex Wennberg, a midseason acquisition brought in for this postseason run, called the Hurricanes “a hard team to face.’’
“They’re skating, they’re moving and they’re aggressive,’’ Wennberg said.
“They’re fast, they throw a lot of pucks at the net, and they’ll swarm at times,’’ Rangers captain Jacob Trouba said. “You’ve just got keep your cool in your own zone and get the puck out. They come in waves. They get a lot of looks at the net.’’
A lot more than the Capitals, who averaged about 25 shots per game in the first series. The Hurricanes totaled nearly 600 more shots on goal than the Capitals in the regular season.
“They’re very skilled up front and have a lot of firepower shooting the puck,’’ Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller said. “We’re going to need to be that much better defensively.’’
Everyone has to be better, even including goalie Igor Shesterkin, who was marvelous against the Capitals but will be tested a lot more in the next two weeks.
“We know it’s going to be fast, we know it’s going to be competitive,’’ Laviolette said. “You have to be ready for that. You have to be ready from a speed standpoint and a compete standpoint.’’
Asked what his team got out of the Washington series, Laviolette said, “I thought Washington played really hard. They checked hard. There wasn’t a lot of room in the offensive zone. Some of those similarities I think will come though [in the Carolina series]. It was a tough series. It was playoff hockey.’’
It was playoff hockey in name only.
The real playoffs for the Rangers begin against the Hurricanes, and they hope they can weather the storm.