TAMPA, Fla. — The Rangers’ lineup depth and elite goaltending have been on full display throughout this three-game win streak they will carry into Thursday night’s game against the Lightning at Amalie Arena.
Two shutouts in three games thanks to goalie Igor Shesterkin.
Only one goal allowed with Braden Schneider filling in for captain Jacob Trouba and Zac Jones as the next man up on defense.
These are crucial components for any NHL team with Stanley Cup aspirations, and the Rangers are ramping up both with roughly a month remaining in the regular season.
“This is it,” Vincent Trocheck said after the Rangers shut out the team behind them in the Metropolitan Division standings, the Hurricanes, in their building Tuesday night. “This is what both teams and what other teams have going forward.”
The Rangers improved to 10-1-0 this season in the second night of a back-to-back with their win over Carolina, while also posting their fifth shutout and Shesterkin’s second in the last three games.
Shesterkin blanked the opposition in consecutive outings for the fourth time in his career, joining Lorne Chabot (six times), Ed Giacomin (five times) and John Ross Roach (four times) as just the fourth Rangers goaltender to achieve the feat at least four times.
Between Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick, the Rangers have allowed a single goal on 74 shots in their last three games.
“Especially late in the season, going into the playoffs, to have a hot goalie — or, in our case, not necessarily hot, just really good — it goes a long way,” said Trocheck, who has 40 postseason games on his résumé. “Especially in the playoffs, you see a lot of teams that end up winning the Cup, their goaltender gets hot and stands on his head and steals a couple games here and there. Shesty is capable of doing that any given night.”
Amid Trouba’s anticipated absence of two to three weeks with a lower-body injury and Matt Rempe’s suspension, which has three games remaining, the Rangers who have been waiting in the wings have gotten an opportunity.
Jones, who skated in just his 20th game of the season on Tuesday, has more than adequately filled the seventh defenseman role since October. It had been over a month since Jones’ last appearance when he drew back into the lineup on March 9, but the 23-year-old has looked like he’s been consistently playing all season in the previous three games.
Alongside Erik Gustafsson, they’ve forged a nifty puck-moving pairing that is consistently looking to put it on net.
The new-look fourth line with Rempe had been offensively successful and provided a physical jolt to the Rangers whenever they were on the ice. Rempe’s 6-foot-8 ½ presence may have been missing on Tuesday, but Jonny Brodzinski was a regular in this lineup long before the 21-year-old cannonballed into the NHL.
Brodzinski directly replaced Rempe on the right wing of the fourth unit next to Jimmy Vesey and Barclay Goodrow, giving the line more speed than grit, but making an impact all the same.
Even without Trouba and Rempe, two of the team’s most physical players, the Rangers managed to play the Hurricanes with some snarl. If they can continue to bring that hard-nosed play, and then reinsert those two, the Rangers are going to be working toward becoming a formidable playoff team.
“They were awesome [Tuesday night],” head coach Peter Laviolette said of his club. “To travel here, play a team that’s playing as well as they are, played the night before and missing a couple big, heavy bodies that play physical for us, guys really stepped up and played a terrific game. I thought the first period, to get out in the first period the way we did, I thought was really important.
“Guys were ready right when the puck dropped. I thought the end of the second we lost a little bit of wind. But got it back in the third period, went back and forth for a while and then we just hunkered down and played some good defense. Heck of a win against a good hockey team.”