The Stanley Cup playoffs are fast approaching and the New York Rangers appear to be stepping up to the challenge. Now the winners of the 2024 President’s Trophy, the team is setting themselves apart as a force to be reckoned with. The team hasn’t won a Stanley Cup since the 1993-1994 season, but this might just be their year. As they say in hockey: “Let’s do that hockey.”
Stats, NHL Standing, and the team
The New York Rangers are a Stanley Cup Finals staple team, making the playoffs 62 times in their 98-year history, making the final round 11 times, and winning the Stanley Cup four of those 11 times. The team’s catchphrase, “No Quit New York” is more than just a tagline, it’s a lifestyle. As of now, they are the number-one team in the league and are pushing to keep that position. Their current roster is stacked with talented players like Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck, Chris Kreider, Adam Fox, Mika Zibanejad, Alexis Lafreniere, and the famous fighting machine Matt Rempe (affectionately called the Rempire State Building by fans) to name a few.
“It shows resiliency…our guys are playing hard and fight to the end for it.”
NY Rangers coach Peter Laviolette on “No Quit New York”
Artemi Panarin, often called “the bread man” or simply “bread” due to his surname’s similarity to the chain Panera Bread, has had an incredible season this year. As of the end of the regular season, he has an astounding 120 points, 49 goals, and 71 assists in the 2023-2024 season, placing him in the top five skaters in the NHL with the most points this season. He has repeatedly come through for the team and has hit a career-high with his goals thus far in the season.
The team’s two goaltenders, Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick, are both big names in the NHL. Shesterkin, shown in the below video, is considered one of the top goaltenders in the league. In 2023, he was ranked the number two goaltender in the league by the NHL network. Jonathan Quick is a three-time Stanley Cup winner, and as of March 2024, the record holder for most wins by an American–born goalie in the NHL.
But its not just the Bread Man and the goaltenders that are hitting milestones. On March 30th of this year, in a game against the Arizona Coyotes, Chris Kreider scored his 300th NHL goal. But he didn’t just do this once, he did it twice. During the game, the first goal scored by Kreider was reviewed and overturned for goalie interference. But later that game he scored again, officially hitting the milestone.
If you need more convincing to at least tune into their games, turn towards the full-out, on-ice brawls that hockey brings to the table. With all of these stats to consider and the NYR’s famous bromances, it may seem like the Rangers keep it all business on the ice, but there has been an entertaining addition to the team: the Rempire State Building. Fighting is something that is nothing new to the NHL, but something that the Rangers haven’t been known for in a long time. 21-year-old, 6’7″ Matt Rempe has won over fans in his rookie season by bringing the Rangers some classic hockey defense and drawing a little blood, but not without still being a good player. As famously stated by Chance the Rapper on SNL, “He’s playing great! Which is crazy because he got in a full fistfight in the first minute of the game.” The Rangers took this a bit literally in their most recent game with their rivals, the New Jersey Devils, in the second-fastest fight in Madison Square Garden’s history causing eight players to be escorted off the ice after two seconds of gameplay.
Whether you’re new to the NHL yourself, or a diehard fan, I hope you pay the Rangers some attention this year, because they might surprise you. As HC UCF’s own Camryn Licata puts it, “I don’t know a lot about hockey. All I know is, as a New Yorker, let’s go Rangers, and New York is incredible.” Even if the Rangers don’t win the 2023-2024 Stanley Cup, we can be sure there will still be no quit in New York.