Peter Laviolette, Rangers renew some old acquaintances in Carolina
Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, April 23. Credit: Jim McIsaac
GREENBURGH — The Peter Laviolette Revenge Tour continues.
The Rangers coach, having vanquished his most recent former team, Washington, in the first round of the playoffs, is now set to face another of his former teams, the Carolina Hurricanes, in the second round.
Of course, since the Rangers already knew they would be facing the winner of the series between the Hurricanes and Islanders — the team that had been Laviolette’s first head coaching job — the well-traveled Laviolette always knew he’d be facing one of his former teams in this round.
“Well, you knew that was gonna happen,’’ the coach said with a laugh as the Rangers resumed practicing Wednesday, following two days off. “The writing was already on the wall.’’
When the series will begin is still unknown, but given that Saturday night at Madison Square Garden is reserved for a potential Knicks-76ers Game 7, it’s most likely Game 1 of the Rangers-Carolina series will be Sunday. When that happens, it will feature a rematch of the teams’ second-round series two years ago, when the Rangers prevailed in seven games with the home team winning every game except Game 7.
“We had a good battle with them through seven games, and good couple of battles [in the regular season] this year, so should be a fun series,’’ defenseman K’Andre Miller said of the Hurricanes.
“I remember [the 2022 matchup] being very, very emotional series,’’ captain Jacob Trouba said. “The speed, obviously the highs and lows. I think it went back and forth a lot. It was a great series. It came down to the very end. A couple bounces both ways, I think, [decided] different games. I think we're all prepared for a good, hard-fought series.’’
The coaching matchup will feature Laviolette, who won the Stanley Cup in 2006 with Carolina, against Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour, who was the captain of that 2006 team.
“He's clearly done a good job,’’ Laviolette said of Brind’Amour. “He's had his team moving in the right direction. Year after year, they’re one of the top teams in the league . . . You can just tell that his teams play the right way. They play hard.’’
The Hurricanes, who finished second to the Rangers in the Metropolitan Division, had won the division title the last two seasons before the Rangers beat them out this year for both the division and the overall best record in the league and the Presidents’ Trophy.
Carolina is known as a fast team that makes a point of taking a high volume of shots at the opposing team’s net. Defensively, they play a strict man-to-man system. Center Sebastian Aho led them in goals (36) and points (89) in the regular season, well below Artemi Panarin’s totals of 49 and 120 for the Rangers. But Carolina had 12 players on the roster who scored double-digit goals, compared to nine Rangers.
“They're very skilled up front and have a lot of firepower, they like shooting the puck and they get going in the ‘O’ zone, so I think we're just going to need to be that much harder in the ‘D’ zone, and breaking out pucks,’’ Miller said.
Trouba was asked how the two teams are different now than two years ago. He noted that center Vincent Trocheck, who played for the Hurricanes in 2022, is a Ranger now.
“That’s a big piece,’’ he said.
“I think we're deeper, and a more mature team,’’ Trouba said. “Two years ago . . . that's a long time ago. But we built that confidence in knowing that we can play in Carolina. Historically, I think we've played them decently. I think we'll be ready to go. It’s gonna be a fast game . . . It's two top teams in the league.’’
Blue notes
Adam Fox, who took a knee-to-knee hit from Washington defenseman Nick Jensen in Game 4 of the first-round series, did not practice Wednesday. The Rangers said it was because of “maintenance.’’ . . . Trouba filmed a TV commercial with his mom for AstraZeneca, urging people to get screened for cancer. “That was fun,’’ he said. “My mom's had some cancer scares. I lost my grandfather to cancer . . . It's kind of a good opportunity, I thought, to raise awareness.’’
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.
