The Rangers have personified the NHL’s holy trinity.
A 4-0 win over the Senators on Monday night at Madison Square Garden officially bestowed a trifecta of regular-season honors — first place in the Metropolitan Division, the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and the Presidents’ Trophy — onto the Blueshirts to close out what has been a franchise-best 82-game campaign.
This Rangers team willed its own destiny through hard work, in-game resolve and the chip that grew on their shoulder in the aftermath of last year’s first-round exit against the Devils.
16.2s050.rangersgamer.xml
The Rangers have personified the NHL’s holy trinity.
A 4-0 win over the Senators on Monday night at Madison Square Garden officially bestowed a trifecta of regular-season honors — first place in the Metropolitan Division, the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and the Presidents’ Trophy — onto the Blueshirts to close out what has been a franchise-best 82-game campaign.
It was a list of goals they never quite acknowledged too loudly, but the way the Rangers went about their business this season all but broadcasted their intentions.
“It started in training camp, before training camp, it’s been sustained in practice — we always compete,” Rangers captain Jacob Trouba. “As athletes, it’s fun to compete, especially with your buddies and your teammates at practice and that carries over into the game. You have that energy.
“At the end of the day, you just want to compete and win something and whenever you get the opportunity to win something, it’s special. That’s why we’re all here.”
This Rangers team willed its destiny through hard work, in-game resolve and the chip that grew on their shoulder in the aftermath of last year’s first-round exit against the Devils.
It led to one of the most prolific Rangers seasons in recent memory, which was fittingly capped by a decisive victory over Ottawa that secured home-ice advantage for the duration of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
No team will finish with more points than the Rangers’ 114, another team-best mark.
No team will collect more wins than the Rangers’ record-setting 55th victory.
And no team will face more expectations in the coming weeks than the Rangers.
For Monday night and Monday night only, however, the Rangers will celebrate their first Presidents’ Trophy since 2014-15.
“We’ve got to wake up tomorrow and turn the page,” head coach Peter Laviolette said after leading a team to the most points in the NHL for the second time in his career. “Start getting ready for why we did all that work, and that’s the playoffs.”
The Rangers came into this game with the same unwavering intentions with which they started the season. There was a task at hand and the emphasis on execution to complete it was unmatched.
As a result, goalie Igor Shesterkin notched his fourth shutout and the team’s sixth with 26 saves.
Jack Roslovic’s 19-game stint on the Rangers’ top line hasn’t exactly dazzled, but the trio sure did shine Monday. It was his unit, with Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad, that set the pace for the rest of the home team.
Jumping out on a two-on-one rush with Kreider, who got a stick on an errant Senators pass to send the puck the other way, Roslovic then buried his third goal as a Ranger for the 1-0 lead just under six minutes into the game.
The Rangers didn’t generate a surplus of odd-man rushes, but the they capitalized on those they produced.
While skating shorthanded relatively early on in the second period, Adam Fox and Kreider flew out of the defensive zone before the 26-year-old defenseman buried the puck off the rush to double the Rangers lead.
After Artemi Panarin notched his 49th goal of the season for a 3-0 lead less than five minutes into the third period, the rest of his Rangers teammates were avidly trying to get him No. 50. Alexis Lafreniere ended up scoring instead to help the Rangers cruise to victory.
“It was Game 82 but a game that we wanted,” Fox said. “I think we did a good job of bearing down and, you know, the crowd was into it, too, and that always helps us.”
The Rangers had control over their own destiny to cap a historic regular-season, and they reached out and took what was theirs.
The same rules apply for what’s next.
