Rangers keep eyes on prize
Blueshirts are focused on sweep, not outside noise
WASHINGTON — Jacob Trouba, standing at the podium with the Stanley Cup playoffs logo as a backdrop behind him, painted a picture of this Rangers team. A real-life picture, if you will, of how the Blueshirts have operated all season long under a glaring spotlight that followed them from their firstround exit in last year’s playoffs and through their Presidents’ Trophy-winning 2023-24 campaign. “All the noise outside doesn’t always come in,” the Rangers captain said. “I think [after Game 3] we were at the hotel just hanging out talking, no one’s really talking about [Matt Rempe’s hit] or hockey or anything that really goes into that. It’s just friends hanging out being together, and a lot of the outside noise, I guess, just stays outside. “You can see it as much as you want, but don’t go on social media, don’t read a bunch. Just go about your business playing your game and maybe try to keep the tight-knit team together hanging out and not really letting that stuff creep in.” The Rangers will go for the Capitals’ jugular Sunday night, when they will have their first opportunity to close out the first round and complete their first four-game sweep in 17 years. Everyone and their mothers have had an opinion on the Rangers this season. Were they really the best team in the NHL? Are they just a product of their goaltending and special teams? How do they really stack up against the league’s upperechelon of teams? Well, the Rangers have certainly reaffirmed their position through their first three games of the postseason, outscoring the Capitals 11-5 and maintaining a high compete level that has prevented Washington from threatening in this series.
None of it would be possible without a certain attitude, a certain perception of themselves as a team, and what it will take to get to where they want to go. So when word is that they’re playing a bad Capitals team that may or may not deserve to be in the playoffs, the Rangers can’t hear it.
And with half the hockey world up in arms over the way Rempe bashed Trevor van Riemsdyk into the boards, knocking the Capitals defenseman out for the remainder of Game 3 and now Game 4, while the other half celebrated the 6-foot-8 ½ forward, the Rangers aren’t listening.
“I try to stay off social media,” Rempe said. “I was playing ‘Halo’ with [Chris Kreider] and them last night. First time I ever played that. I got killed 68 times. It was a bad performance. Very, very bad performance.”
Rempe knows his job is to finish hits, and the Rangers as a whole know their job is to win games.
If there were ever a regular-season mindset to carry over, it was the Rangers’ this season. It’s worked for seven months, dating back to Day 1 of training camp.
The Rangers have a job to finish now, and they have their heads in the right space to do it.
“I think we just stay focused on the game,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “I think we’ve done a good job of that down the stretch in the regular season and the playoffs. We just stay current in the day, and whatever is going to happen is going to happen when it’s going to happen.
“Just worry about tomorrow, take care of tomorrow, do the work tomorrow and get ready for tomorrow.”