Broadway is once again home to the best team in the NHL, at least during the regular season.
After Monday night’s 4-0 win against the Ottawa Senators, the New York Rangers not only clinched first place in the Metropolitan Division, but also the President’s Trophy for the regular season record. best in the league.
It is the fifth time in franchise history that the Rangers have finished with the most points in the NHL, and the first time since the 2014-15 season, coincidentally the last time the Blueshirts finished atop the department.
The Rangers have had a cast of characters contributing to the team’s success last season. Especially the man who makes Hart Trophy voters sweat, Artemi Panarin.
The Breadman leads the team with 48 goals and 118 points, 41 points more than the second Rangers in scoring, Vincent Trochek. Panarin is fourth in the NHL in scoring, just a few points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov (141).
The Blueshirts also have one of the best tandems in the league. 2022 Vezina Trophy winner Igor Shesterkin is playing at a high level with the playoffs in sight, sitting seventh in the NHL in wins (37). The team has also seen a resurgence in veteran catcher Jonathan Quick. After serving as the third-string goaltender on the Vegas Golden Knights’ Stanley Cup-winning team last spring, the former Los Angeles King has been a great supporting character for Shesterkin.
Despite being the best team in the league, Rangers have no history. This is the 37th time the President’s Trophy has been awarded since it was introduced for the 1985-86 season. Of the 36 teams that have taken home the trophy, only eight have gone on to lift the Lord Stanely Cup.
The Rangers were one of the exceptions, as the 1994 team won the franchise’s fourth and, to date, last Stanley Cup. However, the other two times they won the President’s Cup*—1992 and 2015—the Rangers lost in the conference finals.
The Blueshirts still have to wait and see who they will face in the first round of the playoffs, as the battle for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference continues.
*Rangers finished first in the league in 1942, when there was no prize for the best record
2024-04-16 02:05:20
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