The Rangers' Artemi Panarin, left, and Igor Shesterkin.
TAMPA, Fla. — As the ball dropped at midnight in Times Square to ring in 2024, it was the Rangers who sat atop the overall standings in the NHL. They led the league in points (51), wins (25) and points percentage (.729) and entered Sunday with a seven-point lead in the Metropolitan Division.
They are the team everyone will be chasing in 2024, even as their wary fan base nitpicks one tiny flaw on their roster or another.
New coach Peter Laviolette will get much credit — and deservedly so — for installing a system, a competitive spirit and a belief in the team. But as Laviolette himself has pointed out on more than one occasion, it is the players who are making all this happen, not him.
Those players have shown grit after losses. The Rangers are 9-1 after a defeat this season and also are 6-0 in the second game of back-to-backs.
Although there have been many standouts and the entire roster has played a part in this feel-good early-season story, it is the Rangers’ two Russian players, left wing Artemi Panarin and goaltender Igor Shesterkin, who are leading the way.
Panarin had his second hat trick of the season in the year-ending 5-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday. He has 23 goals and 50 points as the new year begins.
“After this game, I feel great,’’ Panarin said Saturday night. “I don’t know what can be better than finishing the year like that. And we won the game, which is really important. So thanks for my [linemates], they gave me good passes.’’
Shesterkin, who celebrated his 28th birthday with his fifth straight win Saturday, was superb in stopping 34 of 35 shots.
“I thought he was the best player on the ice,’’ Laviolette said. “And that’s saying a lot, because that line and Bread [Panarin, along with Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafreniere] had a heck of a game.
“But Igor was amazing with some of the saves that he made. He seemed like he was dialed in.”
Shesterkin has allowed eight goals on 147 shots in his last five starts, a .946 save percentage and a 1.58 goals-against average. This after going through a personal three-game losing streak in which he allowed 15 goals, including six to Toronto in a 7-3 loss.
“Everybody in their game has some ups and downs at times, and he battles through, and we know he’s going to get back to the level he gets to,’’ defenseman Jacob Trouba said. “When he’s there, he’s a special goalie. So [we have to] play well in front of him, don’t rely on him unless we have to, but when we do have breakdowns and he’s there to make that big stop, it puts a lot of wind in our sails, for sure.’’
Panarin, who notched his sixth career hat trick Saturday, was third in the league in scoring entering Sunday and on pace to shatter his career highs.
The most goals Panarin has scored in a season was 32 (in 69 games) in 2019-20, and his best point total was 96 in 2021-22. His current goal and point totals project to 54 and 117 over a full 82-game season.
“I try to stop [thinking about that],’’ he said. “It doesn’t help.’’
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
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