Artemi Panarin on the left with Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafreniere. Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad side by each. Filip Chytil with trusty companion Kaapo Kakko on his right and Will Cuylle on the left. Jonny Brodzinksi taking spins between Matt Rempe and Jimmy Vesey. Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren together again, Braden Schneider skating with K’Andre Miller with Jacob Trouba on Zac Jones’ right side.
Quick-paced battle drills.
A varsity group of 23 on the ice at the Rangers practice rink.
It could have been April.
It could have been the playoffs.
It was Friday.
It was the second day of training camp.
“It was hard, actually, between us, especially the first practice,” Panarin said after the double-session on which the group spent close to 90 minutes on the ice, the final half-hour devoted to systems. “I was glad to have the system practice, it’s kind of easier.
“But everything is 100 percent.”
The varsity on the ice had 13 forwards. Reilly Smith and Sam Carrick were the only newcomers, having replaced Jack Roslovic and Barclay Goodrow. Ben Harpur and Connor Mackey skated as the fourth pair in the group of eight defensemen.
We are two days into 2024-25 but it sure seems like this is, what, Day 300 of 2023-24. It seems less like a new year than a continuation of last year. It was this way from 2013-14 through 2015-16 when Alain Vigneault was behind the bench and the club made few personnel changes from one year to the next. It always seemed like those Blueshirts were picking up where they left off.
“It probably could be both at the same time,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “There’s definitely a want to get better from where we were last year. I definitely think that’s in place. There are new pieces here. There are pieces who are not here anymore. There are players that want to continue with where they took their game to last year, they want to continue to push, and there might be players who didn’t have the year they wanted last year and they want to get back on track.
“And so I do think it can be both. This is a new team. I feel like this is a new year. This group was together last year, those are just facts. There was some sort of success. We’re looking to build off that but it’s a new group.”
The Rangers have six preseason games, the first on Sunday in Boston. Prospects will have their times to shine. Groups will be mixed along the way so that younger guys such as Brennan Othmann, Adam Edstrom and Brett Berard get a chance to strut their stuff with the vets during scrimmages.
Edstrom may have a shot at making the squad if the club carries 14 forwards but there’s probably no need for that if camp ends with full health. There could be a competition for the seventh spot on defense including Harpur, Mackey, Chad Ruhwedel and Matthew Robertson. Ruhwedel, by the way, is the lone roster player from the playoffs who did not skate with the varsity group on Friday. He was not one of those needing air after this strenuous exercise.
“I’ve run training camp the same way for a while. It is training camp so there’s a lot of pace in there. I don’t like to stop and go to the board. I don’t like to slow it down,” Laviolette said. “I want to keep it going. It’s about conditioning. It’s about getting into game shape and skating shape.
“There’s also systematic stuff we’re putting it that you might forget after a gap of two, three or four months before you see it or hear it again. It could be just verbiage, could be what you’re looking for in a drill or the system. It could be what you’re looking for in a game plan.
“It’s not that they don’t get it or they don’t understand it,” the coach said. “They get it but we’re going to run the exact same practice back in a few days and just try to get better.”
Oh, joy.
But it will be at 8:30 in the morning again?
That’s my question, by the way, not the players’.
This might have been April but it isn’t. This looks like last year’s team but it isn’t. The Rangers created a platform last year. They thought they created a platform in 2021-22 but a season later they won 10 of their first 26 games.
“One plus one doesn’t always equal two, you know what I mean?” Laviolette asked rhetorically. “One good thing doesn’t necessarily bring the next.
“You’ve got to go out every day and work for it. You’ve got to go out every day and fight for it. Today was good. I really liked it. I thought practice was sharp and competitive and fast. It’s a good day.
“These guys will get another dose tomorrow.”
Of course they will.
It’s training camp and it’s Peter Laviolette.
