The New York Rangers are competing to win a Stanley Cup, but that doesn't mean they aren’t able to have a little bit of fun in the process.
While the Rangers have a lot of big-time players with unique personalities including Artemi Panarin, Igor Shesterkin, Chris Kreider, Adam Fox, Mika Zibanejad and Alexis Lafrenière among many others, they somehow all mesh together as one collective unit.
There is a competitive yet joyous attitude that the Rangers practice with on a daily basis that not too many people from the outside would be aware of.
At the end of the past two practices, Peter Laviolette has split the team in half, gathering everyone at one zone of the ice with about five to six players coming out at a time attempting to score a goal.
It’s simple: the first team to score wins while the losing team has to skate afterwards.
It gets competitive as players are screaming whenever any shot comes even close to a goal and the style of play gets pretty physical for just an ordinary practice drill.
Whenever a team does score, they celebrate as if it was an overtime victory and even start chirping and playfully fight the losing team.
“It shows the competitiveness in all of us,” Filip Chytil said. “They were celebrating with us even though we lost. We had to skate. It’s been good, it started last year in training camp and it brought last year very good results, but this year we are moving it to a different level. We play a lot of these small area drills and it’s very good for us and our confidence in the games.”
Laviolette even shared a laugh when asked about these little competitions, knowing that it really stirs up the team in a positive way.
“It’s joyous for half of the players, but not so joyous for the other half if I’m being honest,” Laviolette said. “Just a little bit on the line, which makes it a little bit more competitive. A little happier for the guys who win and maybe not so happy for the guys who find themselves on the line somewhere.”
Watching the Rangers everyday, it's clear how much fun they have as a team. You can always see guys laughing together in between drills, making fun of each other in a friendly and humorous manner while sometimes breaking off into mini competitions.
These are all signs of a group that have brotherly bonds with one another.
For new players that arrived this season, the fun and family-type atmosphere is something that was noticed immediately.
“It’s definitely a tight-knit group,” Sam Carrick said. “Obviously they had a really good year last year and you are not going to get that far not having a tight-knit group. It’s been really fun for me to kind of come in and see how the dynamics work and so far I’ve been really impressed how well everybody gets along and how much fun we have everyday.”
Hockey is supposed to be fun and that’s exactly how the Rangers make it each and every time they step on the ice.
