RALEIGH, N.C. — Ten times the Rangers trudged to the penalty box in the first two games of this second-round series against the Canes and 10 times the team escaped harm.
That’s great.
But great with a qualifier according to Peter Laviolette, whose opinion on the matter as the team’s head coach has some relevance.
“We’ve got to do a better job of staying out of the box,” Laviolette said here Thursday morning, hours before the Rangers sought to take a 3-0 lead in the conference semis. “We’re both good in the specialty-teams area of the game but we can’t be going to the box as much as we have.”
The Rangers have been known for a while for their power play and this season have been known for their penalty kill as well, finishing in the top three in the league in each category for the first time since 1993-94. They were ranked third with a 26.4 percent PP and third with a 84.5 percent PK.
Yet Carolina ranked higher on both sides, leading the league with an 86.4 percent PK while second with a 26.9 percent power play. Through these first two games, the Rangers not only have stifled the Canes’ power play, they’ve made their vaunted PK look silly, going 4-for-9 while scoring at an astonishing rate of 27.27 goals per 60:00.
“It’s work ethic,” Laviolette said. “I think you have to totally look at your opponent in the fact that they’ve been extremely successful in both areas and you have to be ready to execute, you have to be ready with the work ethic and the work that goes into that.
“But when you understand that your opponent was outstanding all year in both areas, we’ve got to make sure to continue to do that.”
It was the power play that produced the third-period tying goal on Tuesday scored by Chris Kreider and the double-overtime winner by Vincent Trocheck. But the Blueshirts also killed two Carolina power plays in overtime, the first when Jacob Trouba tripped Sebastian Aho at 7:57 of the first OT and then when Artemi Panarin hooked the dynamic Martin Necas.
The Rangers obviously got through it, largely because of Igor Shesterkin’s work in net, but they need to button it down a little more efficiently even if there are times that calls seem to materialize out of nowhere.
“We want to be disciplined, we know they have a good power play and a lot of dangerous guys so we don’t want to give them too many opportunities,” said Jimmy Vesey, an integral part of the PK unit that has allowed only two goals in 27 times short. “We have to do a better job staying out of the box.”
Vesey has not been on for a playoff PPGA through 8:43. Mika Zibanejad is plus-one while on the PK over 16:19 and Kreider plus-one over 14:15. Adam Fox hasn’t been on for a PPGA over 17:25 through the tournament.
Trouba was the guilty party three times on Tuesday. It was a massive struggle for No. 8, who also committed a careless giveaway into the middle of the neutral zone that triggered the rush on Jake Guentzel’s late second-period goal that gave Carolina a 3-2 lead.
The captain also had that nearly indescribable moment early in the first overtime where he launched himself through the air at Necas with his elbow extended after the Carolina winger ducked under an attempted hit (for the second consecutive game) and slammed headfirst into the boards without any harm.
Around the league, and most certainly in the Trouba-hating capital of the world in Pittsburgh where time has not seemed to stop since Game 5 of the 2022 first round when Trouba’s hit on Sidney Crosby dramatically course-corrected the series, folks were calling for Trouba to be thrown out of the league.
Like Matt Rempe.
The Rangers, of course, were trailing the series 3-1 and trailing the Penguins 2-0 in Game 5 when Crosby left midway through the second period. The Blueshirts won the game 5-3 and the series 4-3.
That was two years ago, just like it was two years ago when the Rangers-Carolina second round was a homer series for the first six games until the Blueshirts blew out the home team in Game 7.
The Rangers may have the Candy Canes on the run. Carolina switched off Frederik Andersen in net to Pyotr Kochetkov, who hadn’t played since April 14. But in order to take charge, an even heightened level of discipline is required from an already disciplined team.
“We know our kill has been good, but we don’t want to test it that many times as it has been,” Zibanejad said. “In terms of staying disciplined, we’re trying to do everything we can to play hard and not take bad penalties.”
