The Rangers have the start to the season they wanted.
They won four straight in their first road trip of the season and sit atop the Metropolitan Division with nine points, though they have played more games than a majority of the teams in the Eastern Conference.
What’s even more gratifying is the Rangers’ ability to scratch and claw their way to those four wins while playing without two of their top players: Ryan Strome, who missed the entire trip while in COVID-19 protocol, and Kaapo Kakko, who suffered an upper-body injury late in the first period of the road-trip opener at Montreal.
In three of the four games, the Rangers had to play to protect a late one-goal lead and — unlike in years past — they rose to the challenge. The Rangers fended off 14 shots on goal from the Canadiens in the third period at the start of the trip, then limited the Predators (five shots) and Senators (eight shots) in each of the final frames of those contests.
“I think it builds a little bit of confidence,” defenseman Jacob Trouba said Sunday after practice at MSG Training Center. “Good teams can win games when they’re not at their best. If you go back again in the past, I think some of those games would probably slip away — this year feels a little bit different.
“You look at the end of the year when playoffs come down and you’re missing it by a couple points, whatever it may be, those are the games you kind of look back on and say, ‘Who knows? Four or five points, and you can usually pinpoint them.’ When you can pull out those games and win some of those games, it definitely helps your case.”
Trouba is far from the first Ranger to point out the noticeable difference in the way the team has handled adversity this season and the stark contrast in how the players feel on the ice in general compared to the past few seasons.
Even without key players, the Rangers were so far from hitting the panic button that it allowed them to simply focus on the task at hand — especially in their most recent come-from-behind victory, over the Senators on Saturday afternoon.
Much has been made of new head coach Gerard Gallant’s simple system. Players have said it gives them the freedom to play their style while policing themselves. In the players’ eyes, Gallant’s predecessor, David Quinn, might have overcomplicated things.
Both general manager Chris Drury and Gallant, have emphasized the importance of each player understanding his role, which seemingly has simplified each Ranger’s approach to every game.
The Rangers once could easily buckle when the game was on the line, but now they are steadily turning into a team that attacks it head on. Call it grit or just a fresh start with new management, but whatever it is, it’s working.
“I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a different feel in that situation,” Trouba said. “We know what to do, it’s not really overthought and everybody knows their job. Do your job and we’ll be fine. That’s the kind of mentality we’ve taken.
“I think there’s a little bit more cohesiveness and the team’s a little bit tighter. Guys are comfortable being themselves more than they have been in the past, myself included.”