With tonight’s win over Ottawa in the regular season finale, the Rangers have clinched First in the Metro, First in the East, and First in the League to win the Presidents Trophy.
The Rangers last won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2014-15 when they lost in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final to Tampa Bay.
Adam Rotter: It sure looked on Saturday like the Rangers were going to let all the hard work and success they had in getting to First in the Metro and the rest slip through their fingers. But in the end, they found a way on Saturday, won tonight and now have home ice throughout the entire playoffs.
They are either going to play Washington, Detroit or Pittsburgh and that may not be decided for another few days.
They were in First Place for most of the season and they deserve the Presidents Trophy. It was not a season without issues. The guy they had slotted in to be the second line center, Filip Chytil, missed nearly the entire season, they had that stretch in the middle of the season where it looked like the sky was falling and it took Igor Shesterkin until after the All-Star break to find his form.
Lucky for them, Vincent Trocheck had an All-Star season on the second line, they had a mostly excellent second half and when he was needed, Jonathan Quick stepped up in a big way.
Artemi Panarin brought his game to a new level and back into the MVP conversation. Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider were streaky, but still put up nice numbers and stepped up at times. Kaapo Kakko didn’t take a big offensive step forward, but Alexis Lafreniere did and he is starting to look every bit the #1 overall pick he was. Will Cuylle had a real solid rookie season and, as is probably the case when you win the Presidents’ Trophy, most players had nice seasons in their roles.
There are still questions that need to be answered in the playoffs. Can they score enough at 5-on-5? Will they be able to fine the defensive structure that seems to come and go at times? Will Alexis Lafreniere build off of this breakout season and/or return to the level he played at in 2022? And probably most importantly: What will Artemi Panarin be? Panarin has given every indication that he is ready to be an impact player in the playoffs, but we won’t know until things start this weekend.
Peter Laviolette deserves a lot of credit for pulling together a team that underachieved for a big stretch of last season and then through the final four games against the Devils. He pushed the right buttons in nearly all situations and brought this team to a level that of regular season success they probably didn’t anticipate. We’ve been waiting since the Rangers lost Game 7 to the Devils to see what this team would do in the playoffs and we will start to get our answer this weekend.