‘Underdog’ Rangers not worried about outside noise heading into series with Hurricanes
The Rangers have taken care of business at all stages this season.
They fended off the league's top teams to secure the Presidents’ Trophy, a Metropolitan Division title, and a single-season franchise record of 50 wins during a tremendous regular season showing.
New York carried that momentum into the first round of the postseason where All-Star goaltender Igor Shesterkin led them to a four-game series sweep over Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals.
But now, heading into the second round, the Rangers find themselves viewed as the underdogs for the first time in their matchup with the talented second-seeded Hurricanes.
While the two sides are on a relatively even playing field, the Blueshirts have the edge in some key areas such as the goaltending matchup and home/road splits, but they still aren't the "favorite."
While that notion comes as a surprise to many, Blueshirts defenseman and second-year captain Jacob Trouba said the locker room isn’t paying much attention to the outside perception.
“I don’t think anybody really cares too much,” he said. “We believe in ourselves in here and we know what’s ahead for us. It’s going to be a hard-fought long series and that’s what we’re prepared for.”
New York certainly knows what to expect as these two divisional mates have had numerous tough and intense head-to-head matchups over the past few seasons.
“They’ve been the standard,” Trouba said. “Coming into this year that’s the team you want to overtake, you want to be ahead of them in the standings during the regular season and it’s no different in the playoffs. They’ve been consistently good and we’ve gotten better over the years, so it’ll be a great series."
“It’s going to be battle,” defenseman Ryan Lindgren added. “The preparation starts now. We know each other well, we’ve had good battles with them, we played them a few years ago and it went to seven, and every game with them since then has been close, so it’s gonna be a fun series.”
As Lindgren mentioned, that matchup two years ago was the last time these two teams duked it out in the postseason, with the Blueshirts ultimately besting Carolina with a road win in Game 7 to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.
While much has changed since then, like All-Star second-line center Vincent Trocheck now on New York’s side, Trouba remembers the confidence the team was able to build by pulling out a victory in that back-and-forth series.
"Historically we’ve played them decently,” he said. “Two years is a long time but we built that confidence in knowing we can play in Carolina. A lot of us are two years older, we have a different coach and we’re a deeper and more mature team now, so I think we’ll be ready to go."
The Rangers and Hurricanes kick things off on Sunday afternoon with a 4 p.m. puck drop at Madison Square Garden.
