Rangers have been ‘dialed in’ for stretch run: Peter Laviolette

The Rangers’ certainly had a lot on their plate down the stretch of the season.

They were playing to check every box — winning the Metro division, winning the Eastern Conference and winning the Presidents’ Trophy with the best record in the NHL to secure home-ice advantage throughout the entirety of the playoffs.

It would have been easy to get distracted with so many different races to focus on.

But head coach Peter Laviolette praised the team’s ability to compartmentalize and take things one step at a time.

“They’ve been dialed in,” Laviolette said Monday. “We weren’t talking about anything inside the room, we really weren’t. We were just talking about the games that we were playing. For the most part, I think we did a pretty good job. … We did a good job of staying focused and staying consistent and playing hard inside those games and trying to do the right things. That to me, I was happy with down the stretch. We were good, we stayed pretty solid with our game.”

The Rangers, who will be facing the Capitals in the first round, recorded a stellar 26-8-1 record across the final 35 games, not letting any of their ample races sidetrack them or prompt them to begin to look ahead.