2023–24 New York Rangers season
National Hockey League season / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2023–24 New York Rangers season is the franchise's 97th season of play and their 98th season overall.
2023–24 New York Rangers | |
---|---|
Presidents' Trophy winners | |
Metropolitan Division champions | |
Division | 1st Metropolitan |
Conference | 1st Eastern |
2023–24 record | 55–23–4 |
Home record | 30–11–0 |
Road record | 25–12–4 |
Goals for | 282 |
Goals against | 229 |
Team information | |
General manager | Chris Drury |
Coach | Peter Laviolette |
Captain | Jacob Trouba |
Alternate captains | Adam Fox Barclay Goodrow Chris Kreider Artemi Panarin Mika Zibanejad |
Arena | Madison Square Garden |
Minor league affiliate(s) | Hartford Wolf Pack (AHL) Cincinnati Cyclones (ECHL) |
Team leaders | |
Goals | Artemi Panarin (49) |
Assists | Artemi Panarin (71) |
Points | Artemi Panarin (120) |
Penalty minutes | Barclay Goodrow (78) |
Plus/minus | Ryan Lindgren (+22) |
Wins | Igor Shesterkin (36) |
Goals against average | Louis Domingue (1.00) |
During the off-season, Peter Laviolette was named head coach on June 13, 2023,[1] after Gerard Gallant resigned at the end of the 2022–23 season.[2][3]
On December 3, the Rangers earned their 3,000th NHL regular season win in franchise history after a 6–5 defeat of the San Jose Sharks.[4]
The Rangers participated in the 2024 NHL Stadium Series at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where they played against the New York Islanders on February 18, 2024,[5] winning the game 6–5 in overtime.[6]
The Rangers' season featured long-term injuries to two players. Center Filip Chytil was injured in a game against the Carolina Hurricanes on November 2, 2023.[7] After nearly three months of rehabilitation, including three weeks in his native Czech Republic, Chytil was ruled out by the Rangers for the remainder of the season on January 28, 2024.[8] Additionally, forward Blake Wheeler was ruled out for the remainder of the regular season on February 16, after suffering a lower-body injury against the Montreal Canadiens the previous day.[9]
With a 2–1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on February 24, the Rangers won their 10th consecutive game, tying a franchise record reached in the 1939–40 and 1972–73 seasons.[10][11]
On February 28, the Rangers became the first team in the NHL to reach 40 wins in the 2023–24 season in a 4–1 victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets.[12] On March 26, the Rangers became the first team to clinch a spot in the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs following a 6–5 overtime win against the Flyers.[13] On April 13, the Rangers defeated the Islanders 3–2 in a shootout to win their 54th game, setting the record for most regular season wins in franchise history.[14] In their final regular season game on April 15, the Rangers clinched both the Presidents' Trophy and the Metropolitan Division title with a 4–0 win over the Ottawa Senators. They also set single-season franchise records with 55 wins and 114 points.[15]
In the first round of the playoffs, the Rangers swept the Washington Capitals in four games,[16] which is the first series sweep for the Rangers since the 2007 playoffs, when they swept the Atlanta Thrashers in the conference quarterfinals.[17] The Rangers became the first team to start 7–0 in the Stanley Cup playoffs since the 2007–08 Pittsburgh Penguins after winning the first three games of their second round series against the Carolina Hurricanes.[18] After losing the fourth and fifth games,[19][20] the Rangers eliminated the Hurricanes in the sixth game.[21] In the conference finals, they will face the Florida Panthers.[22]
They became the first Presidents' Trophy team in nearly a decade to move past the second round since the 2014–15 New York Rangers.[citation needed]