Jacob Trouba at forefront of Rangers’ newfound grit

RALEIGH, N. C. — Remember all that talk about how the Rangers needed grit? It was less than a year ago, so it still seems like a fresh narrative.

At the end of last season, the way the Rangers lost five of their last six games — which included three shutouts — against physical teams like the Islanders, Capitals and Bruins only made the notion that much stronger in the offseason. As the Rangers took the ice against the Hurricanes in Game 5 of the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs Thursday night, however, the lack-of-toughness storyline seems like a lifetime ago. That’s because of the Rangers’ commitment to the organization’s hard-to-play-against mantra, their conscious effort to stick up for teammates and the players — new and old — finding ways to incorporate some snarl into their individual games.

Jacob Trouba has been at the forefront of it all. As the veteran defenseman has grown more comfortable over his three seasons in New York, Trouba has steadily become the physical presence on the back end that the Rangers always expected him to be. “He really epitomizes the way we want to play and he does it so consistently,” Chris Kreider said earlier in the season.

There was the payback hit on Max Domi in Game 4 for the Hurricanes fourth-liner’s late cross-check on Ryan Lindgren after Game 3. The monster blow prompted Steven Lorentz to start throwing punches and in turn take an instigator penalty that gave the Rangers a power play, which they capitalized on to take a 1-0 lead on the way to their series-tying 4-1 win at the Garden Tuesday night. Who could forget how Trouba leveled the Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon and lit up the Predators’ Luke Kunin earlier in the season? Each were momentum-changing hits which the Rangers fed off.

“The hit was good,” fellow defenseman Justin Braun said of Trouba’s hit on Domi. “His response after that, you know, gets the guys going. He’s maybe one of the best right now at the timing on those hits.

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“When you can have that physicality, you’re not going to get pushed out of a game. It’s huge for the whole bench. ” Trouba has seemingly always had that part of his game, it’s just finally coming through.

The additions of Ryan Reaves and Barclay Goodrow, who has been out since Game 1 of Round 1 with a suspected ankle fracture, has helped spread that biting style of play throughout the rest of the lineup. Reaves finished third in the NHL in hits with 279 during the regular season. While he’s the name that most opponents look for, sometimes it seems like teams forget about Trouba, who had the third-most hits in the league this postseason entering Thursday night’s game at PNC Arena.

Their physical play has been infectious. Reaves and 20-year-old Alexis Lafreniere led the Rangers in hits in Game 4 with five each. K’Andre Miller, Trouba’s second-year defensive partner, has added some nastiness to his game as well.

We’ve found out that rookie Braden Schneider can pack a punch, too, and Ryan Lindgren seemingly grows tougher with age. “I think you’re just not backing down from the physical play,” Braun said of how he’d define gritty hockey. “Guys start throwing the visor on, you’re going right back at him.

Even if you get knocked down, you’re getting up. You see gritty teams blocking shots, you see Motter [Tyler Motte] and Copper [Andrew Copp] doing that night in and night out. Other guys, [Adam Fox] even, eating like five [shots] in the third period the other night.

He’s our highest-skilled D-man and he’s out there doing it. It’s awesome to see. ” The days of the Rangers getting physically manhandled are gone.

The concerns over the hesitant reactions to cheap shots are no more. The Rangers are tough, in every sense of the word, and it’s become a part of their identity. “Some players that we brought in, we wanted to add a little more physical play to our game because they didn’t think the team was hard enough,” head coach Gerard Gallant said.

“I think we’ve added that. ”.