Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers experience different emotions that go into the last game in a six -month regular season marathon.
While the lightning fits for another look after the season and is excited for the potential for a deep driving, Rangers, which comes from three consecutive seasons at least 107 points, closes the doors of one of the more disappointing seasons in franchise history on Thursday evening in New York.
The law meets for the second time this month. Tampa Bay (47-26-8, 102 points) rolled to a 5-1 route in New York on April 7, and scored three times on Power Play and counted three goals in a span of 1:45 during the first period that Braden Point, Nikita Kucherov and Jake Guentzel published all three points.
Tampa Bay dressed second in the Atlantic Division and Home-Oike advantage on Tuesday night when it rolled to a 5-1 route by the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers as Point, Guentzel and Kucherov combined for three goals and three assists.
“We have been able to fight for a Stanley Cup,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. “There are 32 teams. There are only 16 left, and we are one of the 16. That’s what we wanted to do. I think every year we are looked at as, OK, their time is over. ‘And every year these guys come back and prove they can do it.
“We have memories ahead of us to do, and then I’m glad to see what we can do in this playoffs.”
Guentzel, Kucherov and Point are all on hot lines lately to help Tampa Bay get a home ice benefit in the opening round for a whole season for the first time since 2019.
Guentzel has 14 goals and 12 assists in his last 24 games and Kucherov will finish with the most points in the NHL for the second straight season and the third time in his career. Kucherov has 29 of its 121 points (nine goals, 20 assists) in their last 16 games. Point collects his third straight 40-goal season and has 10 goals in its last 13 matches.
Rangers (38-36-7, 83 points) were six points of the second Wild Card after their second exhaust loss to Tampa Bay 10 days ago and returns from a three-game trip. New York was eliminated with Saturday’s loss 7-3 to Carolina Hurricanes and hopes to end with consecutive victories after serving a 5-3 victory on Florida on Monday.
Rangers is the fourth team in the NHL history that missed the playoffs after winning the president’s trophy last season and is 7-10-3 in the last 20 matches after enduring a distance of 15 losses in 19 matches earlier this season to release them from the playoffs.
Rangers will use his season finale to evaluate some of his younger players such as Gabe Perreault, Brett Berard and Matthew Robertson, who made their NHL debut and spent some of it at the best defense couple with Adam Fox.
The young trio played on one night when Rangers collected from a two-goal deficit and saw Vincent Trocheck made it the tiebreaking goal during a penalty death during the third period.
“We are still trying to win even though we are out in the playoffs,” Juuso Parsinen said after Rangers scored four straight goals for his first multi-goal comeback of the season “You always want to win. We have to be proud and play for our fans even if we don’t make the playoffs.”
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