Rangers not looking for trouble, but won't back down against Capitals
Rangers coach Gerard Gallant looks on during the first period of an NHL preseason game against the Bruins on Sept. 28, 2021, at Madison Square Garden. Credit: AP/Corey Sipkin
WASHINGTON — If one didn’t know any better, one might be tempted to think the Rangers opening the 2021-22 NHL season in Washington against the Capitals — and Tom Wilson — might not have been a random thing.
A cynic might think the league (and perhaps its new national television partners) may have seen value in pitting the Rangers in their season opener against the player who assaulted their star forward, Artemi Panarin, in a late-season game that ultimately started the dominoes falling on a revamping of the Blueshirts’ organizational structure and roster makeup.
But coach Gerard Gallant insisted Wednesday, that despite adding players such as enforcer Ryan Reaves and 6-6, 232-pound defenseman Jarred Tinordi to their roster over the summer, the Rangers were not planning on starting any trouble with Wilson and the Capitals Wednesday night at Capital One Arena.
"It's not about toughness, it's about making our team harder to play against,’’ Gallant said after Wednesday’s morning skate about the Rangers’ harder edge this season. "They keep bringing up the [Wilson-Panarin] incident last year. The incident last year isn't gonna happen tonight, and if it did happen tonight, we'd get a response. The response wasn't there last year. [But] that incident's in the past. We're not worried about that. We're worried about getting our team to play the right way, the way we want them to play.
"Now, if that incident happened tonight, it'd be addressed,’’ Gallant said. "So, it's a different scenario.’’
As it happened, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, deputy commissioner Bill Daly and George Parros, the head of the NHL’s department of player safety, were in attendance for the game, which was broadcast on TNT. Bettman was asked before the game about the potential for fireworks.
"Our players and our coaches and our managers are professionals, they know what's expected of them,’’ Bettman said. "And we think it would be best if everybody focused on being on the right side of the line as opposed to the wrong side of the line. The game has our attention.’’
The whole point of Rangers president/GM Chris Drury trading for Reaves and signing Tinordi as a free agent over the summer wasn’t to just counteract Wilson the three times the Rangers will play the Capitals this season. Rather, adding Reaves, Barclay Goodrow and Sammy Blais was meant to give the Rangers a little more abrasiveness to their bottom two lines. Reaves and Blais, flanking center Kevin Rooney on the fourth line, should add some heaviness to the Rangers’ forecheck, allowing them to dump the puck in and then punish opposing defensemen with big hits when they go to play the puck.
"I thought there were times in the preseason where we saw some of the guys we added go out there and really change the pace— the tone of the game,’’ forward Ryan Strome said about the makeover of the Rangers’ bottom two lines. "And I think it's a trickle-down effect. I think if you see those guys do it, it trickles through your lineup.
"We got guys with a little bit of ‘bite,’ and they're gonna go out there and have a little bit more pushback,’’ he continued. "I think in the preseason, there was great examples of that. I thought the Islander game [Saturday], the first 10 minutes they came out pretty strong, and then you know, things kind of turned, and we settled in and we pushed them back.’’
Goodrow, who on Monday was named one of six alternate captains, also wasn’t brought in just to provide grit to the third line. A good part of what the Rangers want from him is to be one of the leaders for a young Blueshirts squad that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2017. Goodrow said the alternate captain designation won’t require any more of him than he had planned to bring to the team anyway.
"I was brought here to be a leader,’’ he said. "I don't think a letter on the jersey changes much. I'll still have the same mindset, still play the same game I've always played. And, yeah, just like to be an older guy that can answer some questions for younger guys and be, you know, a positive influence for them.’’
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
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