The New York Rangers are the NHL’s youngest team, but so what? Anything’s possible in the playoffs.
The New York Rangers’ average age is 26.2. According to hockeyreference.com they are tied with the Columbus Blue Jackets, but with the expanded post season roster, they are the youngest.
Such youth — and the NHL playoff inexperience that comes with it — shouldn’t fool anybody into believing either team can’t make a run deep in these playoffs. Matter of fact, the prospect of facing the New York Rangers and Columbus should have opponents shaking in their skates, starting with the Carolina Hurricanes and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Rangers’ firepower and goaltending alone make them a legitimate threat, while the team’s Achilles heel, the defense, could be better after spending training camp working with new defensive coach Gord Murphy, who replaced Lindy Ruff after Ruff was hired as head coach by the New Jersey Devils.
As for Columbus, all the credit starts with the head coach (and former Rangers’ bench boss) John Tortorella. Here’s a guy whose team last summer lost dynamic Artemi Panarin and two-time Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky, as well as one of his better players in Brandon Dubinsky last October to injury, yet still managed a 33-22-15 record for 81 points.
If Torts doesn’t win the Jack Adams Award, the NHL should discontinue the award.
Bruce Cassidy did a good job in Boston, guiding the defending conference-champion Bruins to the Presidents’ Trophy, while former Blueshirts coach Alain Vigneault had a good season behind the Philadelphia Flyers’ bench. But on paper, the Bruins and Flyers are better than Columbus, thus making Torts the clear choice for the Adams.
As for the Rangers, prior to the start of training camp on July 13, the team’s22 man roster was evenly split as 11 players had playoff experience and 11 had none. The expanded roster for the qualifying round is even less experienced with 19 of the 31 players going to Toronto with no playoff games one their resumes.
But how much will playoff inexperience affect the Rangers’ chances of winning the Stanley Cup?
The team’s two best forwards, Panarin and Mika Zibanejad, don’t have much postseason experience. However, each performed well in their small playoff samplings. Zibanejad has 17 points in 28 contests, including nine in 12 games for the Rangers. Panarin has 26 points in 27 tilts, including 10 in 11 matches for Columbus last season.
Not surprisingly, Henrik Lundqvist has the most playoff experience (128 games), followed by Marc Staal (104), Chris Kreider (77), and Jesper Fast (39). No other player on the roster has more than 30 postseason games on the back of his hockey card. In case you’re wondering, Jacob Trouba played in 27 playoff contests for the Winnipeg Jets.
However, there’s precedent for young teams winning the Stanley Cup. Of the past 20 teams to win hockey’s Holy Grail, 18 had an average age of 29 or younger.
Here’s a look at the youngest of those squads.