It seemed to be inevitable as soon as a cursory look was taken at the Stanley Cup Playoffs bracket immediately at the close of the regular season. There were the New York Rangers, set up for a potential second-round playoff series with the Washington Capitals.
“It just feels right that we play them again,” Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby said. “We’ve had great series with them before, and it’s going to be another tough one. A very big challenge for us. We’ve embraced challenges all year, so we’re very excited for this one.”
The Capitals will open their fifth playoff series against the Rangers in the past seven years on Thursday night, visiting Madison Square Garden for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
New York has had the upper hand in the last two meetings, with the Capitals stretching the series to seven games before being bounced in the second round in 2012 and the first round in 2013. The prior two meetings went Washington’s way, with the Capitals winning in five games in the first round in 2011 and emerging after seven games in 2009.
It’s a sense of history, and perhaps of nostalgia, but as the Capitals have made abundantly clear all postseason, they have no time for those thoughts.
“Fifth time in seven years? I don’t really know what to say to that,” forward Brooks Laich said. “We’ve played them before, but every team is different. I mean, our team now is different than the teams that they’ve faced in the past. We have some of the same personnel. I believe we are a different team. For them, they’ve acquired new people as well. A lot of the same faces, some new faces, but still, it’s going to be a good opportunity, a good challenge for our group.”
The Rangers amassed 113 points during the regular season, capturing the Presidents’ Trophy for the first time since they last hoisted the Stanley Cup in 1994. Under coach Alain Vigneault, who arrived prior to last season when they lost in the finals to the Los Angeles Kings, the Rangers have morphed into more of a transition-oriented team than the shot-blocking, defense-first monstrosity deployed by former coach John Tortorella.
They’ll move the puck from behind their blue line, push it quickly up the ice and focus on creating opportunities off of their breakouts. And, scheme aside, shot-blocking is still a part of their ethos — especially among their defensemen, who accounted for 65.1 percent of their team’s blocked shots during the regular season.
“You’d be surprised how many they do,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. “I think probably, you don’t see as many of their forwards lie down as much, but they get in the lane, they block shots, they do all of that. Their [defensemen] definitely do that all the time. There’s not that big of a change, really.”
What has changed for the Rangers since the last playoff series is the addition of veteran right wing Martin St. Louis, who was traded by the Tampa Bay Lightning at the deadline last season. The 39-year-old St. Louis had 21 goals and 31 assists in his first full season with the Rangers, leaving him fourth on the team with 52 points.
He’ll likely assume an increased role early in the series — he has been practicing on the top line — with Mats Zuccarello still recovering from an apparent concussion after taking a slap shot from teammate Ryan McDonagh to the left side of his head in the first period of the Game 5 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
“I remember back when he played at Vermont, people said he was too small to play college, and just kind of used that to his advantage,” Capitals defenseman Brooks Orpik said. “I think he still has a little bit of that left in him, and he’s always out to prove people wrong. He’s a real competitive guy. You’ve always got to know when he’s on the ice.”
Because the Rangers defeated the Penguins in five games, wrapping up their series in overtime at home on Friday, they’ll enter the series with five days of rest. Washington, meanwhile, needed seven games to put away the New York Islanders, took a day off on Tuesday and then returned to practice on Wednesday.
Trotz said the short turnaround has been “pretty easy” for the team, which was on the ice for roughly an hour on Wednesday before flying to New York.
“Obviously, there’s a lot of preparation that has to go in,” Trotz said. “I know the coaches have worked a lot of hours putting in a good preparation plan, and the players, you know, we have to cram a lot of stuff in with a quick turnover, but I’d rather be doing that than doing something else.”
• Zac Boyer can be reached at zboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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