Jacob Trouba’s unique physical gift is back for Rangers — at just the right time

Regarding the Rangers, who indeed get the Panthers for Game 7 at the Garden on Thursday: 

1. Oh, Game 7 of the 2024-25 regular season and not Game 7 of the 2024 Eastern final. The Blueshirts have beaten up on suspect teams through this 5-0-1 getaway in which they have flaunted their talent while still relying too often on Igor Shesterkin’s brilliance. 

This one should carry some emotion with it. This is a challenge whose significance should not be overstated on either side of the ledger. 

Remember, after losing in six to Tampa Bay in the 2022 conference final, the Blueshirts opened the 2022-23 season with a bravura performance in defeating the Lightning at the Garden. Its significance became null and void when the club spun into months of mediocrity following this one shining moment. 

2. But Jacob Trouba’s anachronistic hit that destroyed Justin Barron as the Habs winger came carefree into the zone 7:11 into the third period of the Blueshirts’ 7-2 victory in Montreal on Tuesday — and raised temperatures to a fever pitch across the Internet universe — served as a reminder to the Cup champ Puddy Tats that there is always menace lurking on the Rangers blue line. 

And this time not operating on a damaged ankle. 

I’m done with it every time Trouba crushes a vulnerable opponent and the peanut gallery cries out for justice. Was the hit necessary? What does that have to do with anything? 

It’s hockey. It’s still hockey. And the blow was textbook, skates on the ice, elbow tucked before exploding into the unaware puck-carrier. I am not into victim-blaming, but the unfortunate winger didn’t seem to have a clue about where he was and who he was challenging. 

Maybe it’s because so few players hit the way Trouba does. Maybe someday hits like these will be outlawed. Until then, though, this is the unique element No. 8 brings to his side. 

The early season pairing with Braden Schneider on his off side has proven beneficial to both defensemen and the team. Head coach Peter Laviolette has used this tandem as his primary shutdown pair with a 72.73 defensive zone faceoff percentage as opposed to the K’Andre Miller-Adam Fox duo getting 58.06 of their draws in the offensive end. 

Trouba has simplified his game. He is making simple plays. He and Schneider have been on for seven Rangers goals and two against with a 58.30 xGF per Natural Stat Trick while the Miller-Fox pair has been on for four goals scored and two against with a 69.99 xGF.

The physical element has been secondary to his game. Until Tuesday. Just in time. 

3. Montreal head coach Marty St. Louis complaining about the hit reminds me of then Montreal head coach Michel Therrien complaining that Chris Kreider had intentionally crashed into Carey Price in Game 1 of the 2014 conference final. 

4. If points are as precious in October as they are in March, the same applies to cap space. Indeed, space compounds during the season so that saving pennies the first month of the season equates to dollars at the deadline. 

And the Rangers are frittering space away by the day by dipping into their LTIR pool while carrying eight defensemen in the wake of Ryan Lindgren’s return to action. According to PuckPedia, the Blueshirts project to have just under $472,000 of space at the deadline that will not grow under these circumstances. 

The Blueshirts could get down to seven pretty easily by placing Chad Ruhwedel on waivers, but the hierarchy and/or coaching staff seems terrified of losing the 34-year-old righty — who has played six of the club’s 42 games since acquired at last year’s deadline — to a claim. 

If that is the case, the Rangers will either carry eight defensemen on a 23-man roster (Jimmy Vesey, still on LTIR, will presumably bump Matt Rempe from the roster when the winger is cleared to return if all forwards remain healthy) that will have a negative impact on the cap; lose Zac Jones for no reason; or send Victor Mancini to the AHL for no reason. 

Seems both penny— and dollar — foolish to me. 

5. Kaapo Kakko may feel that he is frozen in time on the Rangers third line, but the Finn might want to smell the roses that come with being the right wing on the best third line in the NHL.

Kakko, Fil Chytil and Will Cuylle have all added dimensions to their game that have translated to puck-possession dominance and productivity on the ice. The unit has been on for seven Rangers goals and none against while racking up an expected goal share of 69.15 per Natural Stat Trick and 71.6 percent per Money Puck. 

The line’s 5.71 expected goals per 60:00 (Money Puck) leads the league among units on for at least 60 minutes at five-on-five with Toronto’s Matthew Knies-Auston Matthews-Mitch Marner second at 4.95 xGF/60. 

You may have heard that I have been lobbying for years for the Rangers to construct a physical checking line as their third unit that would be able to take some of the matchup burden Mika Zibanejad habitually encounters in the playoffs. But this is the third line the hierarchy has long envisioned, a scoring line anchored by a healthy and ascendant Chytil. 

Cuylle is a gem on the left, delivering hits as if measured by a metronome, five in each of the last five games following four in the opener. Kakko is big-bodied. Maybe this can be both a scoring line and a matchup alternative in the playoffs all in one. 

That’s what a large part of the season will determine.