We’ve seen how hard the hockey was contested through the first four games of the Eastern Conference Final and we have marveled at it.
We have acknowledged how difficult it was for the Rangers and Panthers to create time and space that would allow their marquee talent to shine while under constant duress.
This should come as no surprise. It is supposed to be hard when you get to the final four. It is supposed to be difficult when you are playing for a chance to compete for the Cup.
What about, “The Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win in professional sports,” confuses you?
If it wasn’t hard, don’t you think the Rangers might have won more than once over the last 84 years? Maybe don’t answer that question.
But perhaps more to the point, it is hard out there for Vincent Trocheck, Aleksander Barkov, Alexis Lafreniere and Carter Verhaeghe, too, and they seem to be thriving under these same conditions.
The aesthetics and analytics both were so bad for the Rangers for so much of the second and third periods of Game 4 and for so much of the third period of Game 3, that it felt as if the Blueshirts left Florida trailing the series, 2-2.
Being out-attempted by an aggregate 65-17 at five-on-five over the third periods of Games 3 and 4 while the Blueshirts forever chased their opponents and the puck might have had something to do with creating that impression.
But the Rangers were not behind in the series after four games. They were even with the Puddy Tats in what had been distilled to a best-of-three ahead of Thursday night’s Game 5 at the Garden. It’s not like attempts serve as a tiebreaker.
For all that, too, for the overwhelming territorial advantage the Panthers have earned through Games 3 and 4, they both went into overtime. The Puddy Tats were able to score only three goals at five-on-five over those two games.
You can say, “But, Igor Shesterkin.” I am (un)happy to say, “But, Bernie Parent.” No buts about it. The goalie is a part of — not apart from — the team.
Two out of three to play for the Cup for the first time in 10 years.
That’s where the Rangers were when they skated onto the ice on Thursday.
“Our aspiration all season and our goal in life is to win the Stanley Cup,” Trocheck, tied for sixth in the league with eight goals and tied for fourth with 19 points, said following the morning skate. “And we’re in a position right now that’s one of the best we’ve ever had.”
The Rangers were at this same juncture two years ago, 2-2 at home in the conference final against a club from southern Florida, that time the Lightning. It didn’t work out so well. Of course, Trocheck had been on Carolina in 2022. This is his first conference final.
The Artemi Panarin-Trocheck-Lafreniere unit has remained all but inviolate throughout the tournament as it was from the moment it was constructed out of necessity for Game 11 after Filip Chytil went down in the previous match. Panarin hasn’t had as dramatic an impact on this series as he did in the previous two rounds but the line has a recorded an expected goal share of 70.45 percent while scoring four and allowing one at five-on-five.
Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider have remained together in a for-better-or-worse move this series while skating with multiple right wings. But head coach Peter Laviolette has juggled his bottom-six since the end of the Washington series, at times for health-related reasons and other times for strategic reasons relating to the venue and the opponent.
Laviolette has not put the lineup into a blender but there have been games on the road where he felt he needed to work around Matt Rempe. Filip Chytil’s surprise availability — that understandably includes a load-management program — has thrown quite a wrinkle into the proceedings. Blake Wheeler’s return has had a less dramatic impact this far.
The Rangers have not used the same lineup for consecutive games since the end of the first round. The club used 19 different line combinations over the final 35 games of the season after Nick Bonino was waived. The Rangers have used 11 different combos through 15 tournament games.
“I still think there’s still be a lot of stability within the lineup,” Laviolette said. “I think there’s been a block of stability even in the playoffs.
“Wheeler comes back, he’s now an available option. Fil comes back, he’s now an available option. That has to move something. But the core of the lineup, the overall concept of our lines and the overall makeup of our team is still maintaining a lot of stability.”
It’s tough out there. We can stipulate that. It has seemed especially tough for the Rangers. There is no need to reintroduce the evidence.
But it was hard out there for Brian Leetch 30 years ago. Maybe No. 2 didn’t let you know it, but it was.
And he won the Conn Smythe Trophy.
No one wants to hear how the chicken salad was made.
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