Going into Monday night’s (April 15) game against the Ottawa Senators, the New York Rangers had a singular focus – win baby.
That is exactly what they did and they did it convincingly. The Blueshirts shutout the Senators 4-0 to pick up their franchise-record 55th win.
With the win, the team clinched a few important things with the victory. The club clinched first in the Metropolitan Division, first in the Eastern Conference, and first in the entire league, winning their fourth Presidents’ Trophy in franchise history (1992, 1994, 2015, and 2024).
The victory also helped the team establish two new records. The club finished with a team record in points (114) and as mentioned above, 55 wins.
The Rangers won this game using the recipe that helped them all season long. For starters, forward Artemi Panarin was electric for the Blueshirts.
Panarin, 32, had another multi-point game for his hockey club. He scored his 49th goal of the season in the third period when he deflected a Ryan Lindgren shot from the point past Senators goaltender Joonas Korpisalo in the third period while also assisting on Alexis Lafreniere’s 28th goal of the season, which was also in the third period.
The team’s most valuable player, who should also be nominated for the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league’s most valuable player in the regular season, finished with 120 points on 49 goals and 71 assists. That total is second only to Jaromir Jagr’s 123 points back during the 2005-06 season.
The Rangers also got another strong performance from All-Star goaltender Igor Shesterkin. Shesterkin, 28, picked up his fourth shutout of the season by stopping all 26 shots he faced.
Shesterkin has been one of the league’s top goaltenders since the All-Star break. All four shutouts came after the event and he found his game after struggling for much of the first half of the season.
Lastly, the team just played well as a whole. They put a lot of pucks on the net (34), played a physical brand of hockey, did a good job of keeping the Senators to the outside, and found the back of the net when needed.
The team will now wait to see who they will take on in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. It will be one of the Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, or the Detroit Red Wings.
No matter who they take on, they are primed and ready to make a run at hockey’s Holy Grail.
More must-reads: