The Rangers beat the Ottawa Senators, 4-0, Monday night at Madison Square Garden, clinching the Presidents’ Trophy for the most points in the NHL’s regular season.
Jack Roslovic, Adam Fox, Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere scored goals — Panarin’s tally was his 49th of the season — and Igor Shesterkin was terrific in net in the Blueshirts’ season finale.
The Rangers (55-23-4) finished with 114 points, leading the league and also setting a franchise record – the 2014-15 Rangers, the last squad of Blueshirts to win the Presidents’ Trophy, had 113.
The Rangers enter the 2024 NHL playoffs as the top overall seed and holding home-ice advantage throughout, a good thing, considering they were 30-11 at the Garden this season and 15-4 over their last 19 home matches. The 30 home wins ties the Rangers’ franchise record for a single season, first set in 1970-71.
Here are some takeaways…
– Winning the Presidents’ Trophy, of course, does not automatically bring the Stanley Cup. In fact, the last time a team that had the most points in a season and also drank from Lord Stanley’s chalice was in 2012-23, when the Chicago Blackhawks won the Presidents’ Trophy and the Cup. Last year, the Boston Bruins rampaged through the NHL schedule and set a points record (135) before getting booted in the first round by the Florida Panthers, who had won the trophy the season before and then got eliminated in the second round.
– Panarin scored with 15:26 remaining in the third period, giving the Rangers a three-goal lead. Fans had been chanting “M-V-P, M-V-P” at the Hart Trophy hopeful at various points of the night and the chants got louder after he tipped in a shot by Ryan Lindgren. Panarin was positioned in between the circles when he deflected the puck into the net, giving him at least one point in the last 13 consecutive games. Panarin had points in 67 of the Rangers’ 82 games this season, a franchise record. He fell one goal short of becoming the fifth Ranger to tally 50 goals in a season.
– Panarin added an assist on Alexis Lafreniere’s goal with 7:00 left, passing up a potential try at No. 50. Instead of shooting, he slipped the puck to Erik Gustafsson, who found an open Lafreniere to goalie Joonas Korpisalo’s left. Lafreniere smacked the puck under the goalie’s glove for his 28th goal of the season.
– The Rangers took an early lead Monday when Chris Kreider fed Roslovic for a goal just 5:55 into the game. Roslovic poked the puck away from Artem Zub near center ice and the puck bounded to Kreider. The two bore down on Ottawa’s goal just ahead of Jake Sanderson, the lone nearby defender, and Kreider flipped the puck to Roslovic, who snapped it past Korpisalo on the glove side. It was Roslovic’s third goal in 19 games with the Rangers and his ninth overall this season.
– The Senators got a power-play chance with 11:02 left in the second period when Kaapo Kakko was sent off for slashing, but the Rangers cashed in instead. Kreider and Fox got a short-handed rush going and Kreider fed Fox for a tip-in and a 2-0 lead. Mika Zibanejad was also credited with an assist on the play. It was Fox’s first shortie of the season and the Rangers’ eighth overall. Fox had points in 15 of the Rangers’ final 18 games of the season.
– Jimmy Vesey was pulled down on a shorthanded breakaway chance late in the third period but he could not convert on a penalty shot.
– Shesterkin earned his 36th victory of the season, matching the second-highest total of any one season in his career. His best is the 37 wins he had in 2022-23. Shesterkin has had three consecutive seasons with 30-plus wins, joining Henrik Lundqvist (11) and Ed Giacomin (five) as the only goalies in Rangers history with at least three 30-win seasons.
