RALEIGH, N.C. — The Rangers have practiced the right way all year.
They responded to whatever trials the regular season threw at them easily — losing more than two games in a row just once, dealing with a handful of injuries and fending off the Hurricanes in the chase for the Metropolitan Division.
They behaved, for just about the duration, the way a championship team is supposed to behave.
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So here came the moment when that was all put to the test Thursday night, the Rangers down 3-1 entering the third period, staring a potential Game 7 against Carolina along with all their demons right in the face.
“It was calm,” captain Jacob Trouba said. “Just the confidence in the game we play. No one was in here freaking out or yelling. Just go out and play 20 minutes how we play.”
This was a referendum on the culture built not just by Peter Laviolette but by the guys who were here before him.
The Rangers passed it with flying colors, riding Chris Kreider’s third-period natural hat trick to a 5-3 victory and their second conference final in three years.
“I’m not surprised,” Laviolette said. “I do think that the groundwork has been laid. And tonight was set up by many days of what we’ve done prior to this — whether it’s in practice or whether it’s games, games where we had to come back, or the meetings we’ve had, or the accountability that the players have had, too, the way they approach every day.
“I would say that just knowing what we’ve done this year, that this could happen tonight.”
What happened was a product of a season the Rangers spent steeling themselves for exactly this kind of moment.
“I think after your first run with a group, I’m thinking back to [2022], you kind of have a feeling for what playoff hockey is gonna be like, but each series is so different, each team is so different year-to-year,” Kreider said. “It’s hard to say, but more the experience over the course of the regular season and the way that we prepared and the way that we played over 82 [games] has helped us create our identity, but also set us up for how we want to play at this point in the year.”
After the calamity that befell this group last season against New Jersey, the Rangers built flood barriers. Every team in the league tries to do that, and they all talk a good game about their resilience and intangibles.
But the Rangers’ barriers held firm through the Hurricanes. And now they are on to the conference final.
