It is absolutely insane to believe that we are already approaching game 82 of 82 on the season. With one game left on the regular season, the Rangers are officially locked into their playoff spot after both Carolina and New Jersey won their respective games last night. This mean’s it is no longer possible for the Rangers to have home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs but to quote Filip Chytil. “If you want to win the Stanley Cup, you have to beat anybody anywhere.” The question now becomes, who will the Rangers play? The Devils and Hurricanes both have one game remaining and Carolina is only holding onto first place by one point. This means that if both teams win their final game, the Rangers will play New Jersey. If both teams lose their final game, the Rangers will play New Jersey. If the Devils lose their final game in regulation, the Rangers will still play them. The only situations where the Rangers will end up playing Carolina in the first round would be if the Hurricanes lose and the Devils win, or if the Devils lose in overtime and Carolina loses in regulation. In that situation, the Hurricane and Devils would have the same exact record but the Devils have the better goal differential, which would be the tiebreaker in that case. That being said, we won’t know until we know.
Before we get too into previewing the final regular season game of the year, let’s quickly recap Monday Night’s game against Buffalo as well as the 2023 Recipient of the annual Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award.
It can’t be overstated how special of a night it always is when the Rangers announce the recipient of the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award. As most Rangers fans know, Steven McDonald was NYPD Patrolman who was shot in the line of duty in 1986, which left him quadriplegic. Following the long road of recovery, McDonald not only forgave the man who shot him, but created a program to promote nonviolent conflict resolution called Breaking The Cycle. The award was established after the 1987-88 season and in the decades that followed, it has become one of, if not the most prestigious honor a Rangers player could be given. Since McDonald’s passing, the significance behind the meaning of the award has only grown and continues to mean so much to the New York Rangers Community. This year, the award was given to Ryan Lindgren, who Steven’s son Conor called the “heart and soul of this building.”
Now I may be a little biased considering he’s always been one of my favorite players and absolutely had my vote this year but you’d be hard pressed to find a guy more deserving of this award. As McDonald said, Ryan Lindgren really is the heart and soul of this team and it becomes extremely notable anytime he is out of the lineup with an injury. You talk about “glue guys” on a hockey team and there’s no secret Lindgren is one of those guys. Without question one of the most underrated, under appreciated parts of this roster and quite possibly around the league. Often under-shadowed by his Norris Trophy winning defense partner, Lindgren plays an incredibly strong, reliable, all-around role on the team’s top defensive pair. He doesn’t hesitate to throw his body in front of a puck destined for the Rangers net and always brings a physical edge to his game. While it’s often hidden behind his defensive strong suits, he also has a lot more offensive skills than he gets credit for. While all these attributes have been a constant relating to Lindgren since he really began his NHL career with the Rangers, they became extra evident this season and his overcoming shoulder injury further justified his deserving of this special honor.
Unfortunately, as often the case on these kinds of nights, the distribution of the award was kind of the main high light. The Rangers didn’t play much of a strong game and it was quite clear that Buffalo needed this win much more than the Rangers did just by how they played the game. JJ Peterka got the Sabres on the board late in the first as they outshot the Blueshirts 14-4 through the first twenty. Artemi Panarin single handedly brought the Rangers back into this one with a pair of goals in the second but about halfway through the third, Casey Mittelstadt tied things up at two. He would eventually get the Sabres the extra point in extra rounds of the shootout, leaving the Rangers with one point which would eventually become relevant as the Devils and Hurricanes both collected pairs of points to distance themselves in the standings.
While home ice advantage would have been nice, it certainly takes some of the pressure off of this final game which can hopefully allow for Gerard Gallant to rest up some of his star players. Given the salary cap restrictions.. (I am so sick of writing that sentence) it’s unlikely the Rangers could really call anyone up to give breaks to a handful of regulars but at the very least, perhaps Gallant can manage the ice time to relieve some minutes from the vets and top players. In their final showdown of the regular season, the Rangers will host the Toronto Maple Leafs who will also likely use this game as an opportunity to rest up their stars as they have been locked into their playoff matchup for what feels like forever now.
Couple other news pieces to cover before getting into tomorrow night’s preview. The Rangers have let the rest of the league know that they currently aren’t intending on signing their 2021 3rd round pick, center Jayden Grubbe before the June 1st deadline, essentially making him available for trade. A bit of an interesting story as Grubbe was over a point per game player with the Red Deer Rebels of the WHL. (67 points in 64 games). I have a couple thoughts as to why the Rangers could be going this route; For starters, with the Chytil signing, they’re essentially locked into their four NHL centers for the foreseeable future. (Zibanejad, Trocheck, Chytil, Goodrow) In addition to that, the Rangers also have Ryder Korczak who was drafted in the same round that same year and is already on his ELC. Korczak, who is also a right handed center and has already begun easing his way into the AHL. Not to mention, the Rangers also have Bryce McConnell-Barker, Adam Edstrom, Karl Henriksson and Matthew Rempe in their depth charts, making for Grubbe’s road to the show in New York a little dicey. The Rangers could look to grab a draft pick in exchange for him or perhaps pick up an unsigned player at a different position. Given the team’s current state, this will be a bit of an under the radar story but something worth keeping an eye on in the months leading up to June.
In addition to that, as I am writing this morning, the Rangers have announced that Mika Zibanejad has been named the Rangers team MVP, Ryan Lindgren the Player’s Player and Filip Chytil the John Halligan Good Guy Award which is named by the media as the player with the best media cooperation. Three rightfully awarded honors to three players who have in their own ways, had terrific season's with the Rangers. There's no question Mika continues to not only be the team's number one center, but one of the key all around star players. It's also nice to see Chytil get recognized for being a good guy off the ice as he has undoubtedly had a breakout season, earning every penny of that big extension.
As for this final game of the season tomorrow night, the Leafs are coming off a huge win against their playoff matchup in the Tampa Bay Lightning last night so I wouldn't be at all surprised if a bunch of their guys get rests against the Rangers. This will be an all around insignificant game for both sides who have a tendency to already play low event, low scoring games against each other. Nevertheless, you never know how these games will go so who know's what to expect. Given the two days off between games and perhaps the desire to end the regular season on a positive note, we could see Igor get the start again tomorrow night as the Rangers may look to prioritize getting that final win to head into the post season.
Regardless, this will be the last meaningless hockey game of the 22/23 season so as I've been saying for the last couple games now, enjoy the calm before the storm! Excited to shift gears and start getting ready for what is hopefully a strong, lengthy post season for the Blueshirts. With this being game 82 of 82, just want to thank anyone who may be reading this or has read anything I've written throughout this season. Crazy to think this is my third season writing about this team that I love probably way too much. I'll have plenty more to say as we approach and get into the playoffs so as always, LETS GO RANGERS.
Chris Feldman
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