Rangers look to carry Cup winning mentality into Stanley Cup qualifiers
Just over a week into Rangers training camp and coach David Quinn has made one thing clear: “This isn’t training camp.” Following the team’s first full team training since the pause, Quinn added that the team is “picking up where we left off.”
The Rangers were playing their best hockey in recent memory and had established themselves as a potential playoff threat at the premature conclusion of the regular season. And after being gifted a spot in the Stanley Cup qualifiers as the Eastern Conference’s 11th seed, Quinn and the Rangers look to take full advantage of a much more direct route to the playoffs.
The Rangers are set to face Carolina in the play-in round of the league’s 24-team playoff format. The regular season series against the Hurricanes was the team’s lone sweep of the season. The two teams will take part in a three-game series starting August 1 in Toronto.
Having to deliberate between three reliable goalies for Game 1’s starting job is already a difficult enough task for Quinn. But since that opponent is Carolina, that makes his decision a lot tougher.
The last three months of the season saw the introduction of the next potential franchise goaltender, Igor Shesterkin, whose 10–2 record led the Rangers through its best stretch of the season, allowing them to be among the teams in the playoff discussion. Shesterkin was in net during the Rangers last meeting with Carolina, where they won 5–2 in Raleigh, arguably one of their best performances this season. The starter in the other three? Henrik Lundqvist. It’s obvious that Lundqvist isn’t in his prime, but King Henrik sure brought it when the Canes were in town. He recorded a .947 save percentage against Carolina this season, facing at least 39 shots in each game.
The Rangers’ recent results show that the safe goaltending option would be Shesterkin. If Quinn wants to stick with what’s been working and who has looked the sharpest at training camp thus far, then he’ll go with the rookie. But we’ve seen Quinn rely on goalie’s success against a particular team to decide who starts. Aleksandar Georgiev won two out of three starts against the Islanders in 2018–19, giving up two goals and recording his first career shutout. Georgiev continued that success into 19–20 and went 3–1 against the Isles.
So far in training camp, social media videos have shown Shesterkin getting the most ice time, as Lundqvist and Georgiev have split time when it comes to the full-team scrimmages. There’s still no indication as to which goaltender Quinn is leaning towards starting and announced today that his decision will be a near game-time decision.
Training camp has also been a key tool towards speeding up the development of the team’s top prospects. Teams had to assemble a 31-man roster for training camp, and a 28-man roster ahead of the qualifying round. The Rangers, along with a vast majority of the league, are taking this opportunity to get their prospects once again involved with the first team.
The players participating in training camp who were not on the Rangers’ final regular season roster are: forwards Steven Fogarty, Tim Gettinger, Vitali Kravstov, and Vinni Lettieri; defenseman Brandon Crawley, Libor Hajek, K’Andre Miller, and Darren Raddysh; and goaltender Adam Huska. All but Miller played the majority of the season with AHL affiliate Hartford and almost all will join the team in Toronto.
Hajek, Gettinger, and Fogarty appeared for the Rangers this season and have continued to impress in training camp. Hajek in particular is a highly rated prospect who is likely to receive a fair amount of ice time against Carolina. He played in 28 games at the start of the season and was sent down in December due to an injury. Although he only recorded 5 assists during that span, Hajek became one of the team’s most reliable and consistent defensemen, splitting his time with fellow impressive rookies, Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren.
Hajek could definitely surpass Brendan Smith as one of the team’s six main blueliners. Smith has been more of a hybrid player this season, where he started out as a fourth line winger and only played defense on the penalty kill. But with Brady Skjei’s departure, Smith became Jacob Trouba’s defensive pair. Right now, the defensive lines have not changed since the end of the season, so it’s looking as if Hajek could be paired with either Raddysh or Crawley.
Kravstov is another prospect who is likely to feature in Toronto at some point. He shuttled between Hartford and the KHL this season and didn’t play in as many games as the Rangers had hoped. But there’s no denying his offensive skillset. While he will still need another season or two to break into the Rangers’ roster, getting him a few minutes of competitive postseason action could be key for his development.
And that can easily happen. Brendan Lemieux will miss the first two games against Carolina after the league suspended him for an elbow to the head of Colorado Avalanche forward Joonas Donskoi. This opens up a fourth line wing slot that might be occupied by Kravstov.
Artemi Panarin was named a finalist for the Ted Lindsay Award and the Hart Memorial Trophy, both in which determine a season’s best players. The Ted Lindsay Award is awarded to the league’s most outstanding player and is voted on by the members of the NHL Players’ Association, and the Hart Trophy is given to the league’s MVP as voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association. Panarin was nominated alongside the Avalanche’s Nathan Mackinnon and the Edmonton Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl for both awards.
Quinn along with many Ranger fans believe defenseman Adam Fox deserved to be a finalist for the Calder Memorial trophy for rookie of the year. Fox exceeded all expectations this season with 42 points, fourth among all rookies. The three finalists were the top three rookie scorers. The Avalanche’s Cale Makar, Vancouver Canucks’ Quinn Hughes, and the Chicago Blackhawks’ Dominik Kubalik.
The Rangers will face the Islanders in an exhibition game on July 29 in Toronto. They begin their series against the Hurricanes on August 1 with Games 2 and 3 scheduled for the 3rd and 4th. All games will be broadcast nationally on NBC Sports Network and locally on MSG Networks.
