The Rangers are headed into the playoffs as the #1 overall seed and with home ice advantage throughout the playoffs. Home ice is a bigger advantage this year than in prior years thanks to Peter Laviolette’s coaching style, but it doesn’t guarantee anything. The Rangers are a top tier team, but they need to show it in the playoffs by winning at least one series in less than 7 games, preferably two series.

While many seem to think that the President’s Trophy is cursed, as the last team to win both the President’s Trophy and the Stanley Cup was the 2012-2013 Chicago Blackhawks, it really has nothing to do with success in the playoffs. Sometimes the team with the most points isn’t always the best team. Sometimes it’s a bad matchup.

And sometimes, hockey happens.

For the Rangers to avoid becoming another statistic in the poorly named curse, they need to do one thing they’ve struggled to do since 2012: Win a series in less than 7 games, preferably 4 or 5. And preferably more than one series.

Nothing guarantees a Cup win. The only thing the Rangers can do is put themselves in the best position to win 16 games. That means staying injury free, closing out opponents quickly, and getting a couple of bounces. Bounces aren’t in their control, but closing out opponents quickly is, and that helps stay injury free.

The 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 teams were doomed by not being able to close out teams quickly. The 2013-2014 team went to 7 games twice–including erasing a 3-1 series deficit–and 6 games once before losing in OT three times to LA in the Final. The 2015-2015 team went 5 with Pittsburgh before needing another 3-1 series comeback against Washington.

The 2021-2022 team needed 7 games against both Pittsburgh, another 3-1 series comeback, and Carolina before again being gassed by Game 4 of the series against Tampa.

This isn’t to say the Rangers need to sweep everyone. It’s that the Rangers need to go for the throat when they have the chance. That means getting up 3-0 and 3-1 and not allowing teams to claw back. It means going for the jugular in a Game 4 or a Game 5 instead of coasting. Hopefully they know this.

Perhaps Chris Kreider has learned a lesson or two from all those Game Sevens that he can teach to the rest of the team.

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