Rangers’ signature toughness has earned them date with Lightning, history

RALEIGH, N.C. — These are the Rangers doing what they have done best since October, confounding just about everyone but themselves while continuing to push limits and defying common wisdom. 

These are the Rangers climbing the NHL beanstalk. 

The mighty two-time defending champion Lightning are next. The task of doing to Tampa Bay what the playoff-tough Islanders could not do either of the last two years is a daunting one, but the Blueshirts are about as undaunted as any group you’d ever meet. 

That is both the genesis and result of staring down playoff extinction five times in the last 10 games, thrice against the Penguins and twice against Carolina. That is the mindset that propelled the Rangers’ emphatic 6-2 Game 7 victory here over the ’Canes on Monday that clinched a ticket to the conference final that will commence at the Garden on Wednesday. 

“We definitely want to keep this momentum going into the next round,” said Adam Fox, the defending Norris winner who is playing at the highest level of his career. “We do have bigger goals, but this obviously is a huge accomplishment for our team.” 

This was a Blueshirt tour de force in which the power play struck twice within the opening 8:00 for a 2-0 lead; Igor Shesterkin turned in yet another outstanding performance; and Jacob Trouba delivered yet another momentum-defining huge hit by legally blasting Seth Jarvis out of the game early in the first. 

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The Rangers never truly allowed the ’Canes to get to their game en route to a 4-0 lead early in the third period in this hockey fortress that was overrun by the Rangers and a strong, loud contingent of fans wearing Blue. They handled the forecheck, they worked down low in the offensive zone. The Kids were peppy. The victors blocked 25 shots — five by Trouba — against nine for the vanquished. 

Black-and-Blueshirts, The Sequel. 

This was the second time within the last 10 years that the Rangers won a Game 7 on the road after the home team had won the first six matches of a series. Kreider was in the lineup for the first one, too, the 2013 first round against the Caps in which he had an assist on Arron Asham’s game-opening goal in the Blueshirts’ 5-0 victory in D.C. 

And of course Kreider — who is at a combined 60 goals on the year after scoring twice in this one — is of course the lone Ranger remaining from the 2015 team that was upset by ascending Tampa Bay in a seven-game series capped by the Lightning’s 2-0 victory at the Garden. 

“It’s different because all of a sudden I’m the old guy,” said the 31-year-old winger. “But obviously there are some similarities. 

“I kind of referred to us as cockroaches, because we didn’t go away. That’s kind of ingrained in the culture of every good team I’ve ever been on here.” 

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That 2015 series was the one in which Marty St. Louis and Ryan Callahan opposed each other but somehow in the wrong uniforms. The franchises are tied together by that captains trade and by the one at the 2018 deadline in which Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller were sent to Tampa Bay for what amounted to a negligible return. 

Miller is no longer a member of the Lightning but McDonagh is part of the core of the Lightning team that has won 10 straight playoff series, a mark equaled by the 1956-60 Canadiens and exceeded by only the 1976-79 Canadiens, who won 13 straight, and the 1980-84 Islanders, who won 19 straight series en route to four consecutive Cups. 

This is the caliber of opponent the Blueshirts will now confront. The caliber of goaltender they will face in this one will be far different than the first two rounds, to state the obvious. It will be Andrei Vasilevskiy, not Antti Raanta, not Pyotr Kochetkov, not Louis Domingue, not Casey DeSmith, not Tristan Jarry. 

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“He is the best goalie in the world right now,” said Shesterkin, who made 37 saves in this one and has gone 7-3 with a .939 save percentage and 2.09 GAA after being pulled for the second consecutive time in Pittsburgh in Game 4 of the first round. “I think it will be a good battle.” 

The Rangers will be challenging and will be challenged by history. 

And by greatness. 

Who knows if this is going further? Who knows if this team could pull off what would be considered one of the most massive upsets in semifinal/conference final history? The 1979 Ooh-La-La team finished 25 points behind the Islanders before pulling their shocking six-game victory in the semis. But those were the Islanders BG — Before Goring. 

The Rangers and Lightning each recorded 110 points during the season. The Blueshirts had the edge in victories 52-51 but the reason they have home ice is because of their 44-39 edge in regulation-time victories. The Rangers were also 3-0-1 in the season series. Still, in this instance the numbers do seem to lie. 

We will find out, though, won’t we? We will find out whether these Rangers can be giant-killers in this date with history toward the top of the beanstalk. We know they won’t back down.