The Rangers will wrap up 2023 — a tantalizing and bemusing year for the club — with two games against two challenging opponents in Eastern Conference territory down south in Florida.
It’s been a prosperous and yet negatively eventful calendar year for the Blueshirts, who have gone 52-18-8 in the regular season and 3-4 in the playoffs over the last 362 days.
They bowed out earlier than expected in the first round of the playoffs, underwent their third coaching staff overhaul in the last four seasons and are now sitting atop the NHL after a franchise-best start to the 2023-24 campaign.
Time will only tell what’s in store for the Rangers in 2024.
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For now, however, the Rangers can only look as far as the litmus test in front of them.
“Two good teams, two teams that have had some deep playoff runs the last couple years,” said Rangers captain Jacob Trouba, who participated in practice Thursday after exiting Wednesday night’s win with an undisclosed upper-body injury sustained in a collision with Capitals forward Tom Wilson.
“It’s a tough trip, especially back-to-back. We had the break, we’re rested, we played a good game [Wednesday] night. It’s going to be a tough, physical game. It’s always tough games going down there, but these are good challenges for us.”
The Panthers probably pose a loftier task than the Lightning, who are phasing out of their championship window that’s been open since 2015 and reaped two Stanley Cups.
After competing without their star goalie, Andrei Vasilevskiy, through the first 20 games as he recovered from back surgery, Tampa Bay is ranked fourth in the Atlantic Division with 39 points.
There have been inconsistencies to the Lightning’s game as they’ve adjusted to the loss of several key players. They’ve piled up losses in twos and threes, and even four straight in late November into early December.
Additionally, the Lightning have been without Mikail Sergachev (lower-body injury) their last three games. It’s possible the Tampa Bay defenseman returns to the lineup against the Rangers.
Pesky forward Matthew Tkachuk and the Panthers will provide a unique test for a Rangers team that can get bullied from time to time. That’s a Tkachuk specialty, and in an Eastern Conference matchup between two teams that could surely see each other in the postseason, stakes should feel high.
After defeating the Lightning on Wednesday, the Panthers trailed the first-place Bruins by four points in the Atlantic entering Thursday’s slate of games. On paper, the Panthers’ 2.91 goals-per game and 18.4 power-play percentage don’t capture the threat the club poses.
Florida is in a three-way tie with the Oilers and Kings for the most shots per game at 34.2. And it doesn’t give up a ton, allowing the third-fewest shots against per game at 27.1.
But it’ll be how the Rangers handle the snarl with which the Panthers play that should be interesting to see.
“I think we’ve faced some players like [Tkachuk],” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “There’s other players that play that type — we had one [Wednesday] night that plays that aggressive type of game [in Wilson]. I think our guys have handled situations and teams. You’re talking about a team that made it deep last year and you’re talking about a team that has made it deep for many years. I think there’s a challenge that goes with that heading down there.
“The back-to-back part of it is a little bit of a challenge. Tampa will be waiting for us. When we get to that one, we’ll have to be ready. I think our guys have handled some situations and some teams. You look at the schedule and some of the games that we’ve played, the Boston games, they were tough and they were physical. Minnesota, I thought we came back and played a good game. Nashville can play an aggressive, physical game, I thought we handled that one well.
“I think it’s a good challenge for our group to go and play a couple teams that I feel are still really strong in the Eastern Conference, really strong in the league.”