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Rangers fall 3-2 in regular season finale, face NJD in Round 1 of Playoffs
April 14, 2023, 5:02 PM ET [234 Comments]
Jan Levine
New York Rangers Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT
The Rangers closed out the regular season with a 3-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. With both teams having little to play for, the game lacked the juice and physicality we would normally see if something was on the line. Toronto scored three times in the final stanza while New York had a pair of goals rightfully overturned during the game. First, Braden Schneider for offsides in the second and Filip Chyil with 1.9 seconds remaining that would have tied the game. The one negative - besides the loss - is that I would have liked to see Mika Zibanejad get his 40th goal of the season.

Game recap:


Lines:
Kreider-Zibanejad-Kane
Panarin-Trocheck-Tarasenko
Lafreniere-Chytil-Kakko
Vesey-Goodrow-Motte

Lindgren-Fox
Miller-Trouba
Mikkola-Schneider

A few thoughts:
1) Devils-Rangers from the game recap: The Devils finished second in the Metropolitan and won three out of four games against the Rangers this season. It will be the seventh time they've played each other in the playoffs and the first since the Eastern Conference Final in 2012, won by the Devils in six games. New York has won four of the previous six playoff series against New Jersey.

2) Artemi Panarin - if there is one major takeaway from last night, it's the continued elite play of Panarin. The Panaron-Trocheck-Tarasenko line has been the team's best lately and Panarin is driving the bus. Colin Stephenson of Newsday goes through some of the numbers, which firmly display why after a rough postseason for Panarin last season, the arrow and his confidence level is pointing way up for him going into the playoffs this year.

After plodding through the first 51 games of the season, when he had 53 points, Panarin seemed to perk up after Rangers GM Chris Drury traded for Tarasenko from St. Louis and Kane from Chicago.

In Tarasenko’s first game with the Blueshirts, against the Seattle Kraken Feb. 10, Panarin set up his fellow Russian for a goal on his second shift as a Ranger. And in the final 31 games, Panarin had 17 goals and 22 assists, giving him 29 goals and 92 points for the season.

Along the way, Panarin, in the final two months, began to click with Zibanejad, and then Trocheck, too. In 11 consecutive games playing with Zibanejad and Tarasenko from March 12-31, Panarin had six goals and six assists. Then, playing the last six with Trocheck and Tarasenko, he had four goals and four assists.


3) Jacob Trouba is mentioned not for what he does on the ice but what he did here off the ice. Heck of a classy move by the Captain.



BRING ON THE DEVILS:
Game 1 in NJ is on Tuesday and Game 2 will be Thursday night









We will get more into this over the next few days, but some series keys:
- slow down the Devils through the neutral zone
- rely on the team's playoff experience to create pressure on New Jersey
- Patrick Kane providing a little of why he was acquired
- K'Andre-Trouba need to be up to the task in facing the Devils top-six
- Fourth line for New York has to give the team the edge in that match up
- Goaltending - on paper - the biggest difference between the team

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