The 2015-16 NHL season is about to start and the New York Rangers are a team to watch in the east, as the Blueshirts are looking to get back to the Stanley Cup finals after dealing with playoffs disappointment last season. The team has Henrik Lundqvist, Ryan McDonagh, Derek Stepan and Chris Kreider coming back and those players are ready to make a push for coach Alain Vigneault.
The Rangers made it to the finals the previous season and lost to the Los Angeles Kings and last year the team was on a mission to get back. The Rangers ended up first in the east and won the Metro division and they also won the President's Trophy with the best record in the league. The team made it through a long stretch with Lundqvist out with Cam Talbot going on a torrid stretch and that helped vault the Rangers into first place.
Lundqvist later returned and the team went into the playoffs with high expectations, but scoring was a major issue and the team could not make it out of the east. The Rangers made a comeback against the Washington Capitals to get out of the second round, but the team could not get it together enough to get past Tampa Bay and now they are coming back looking for a rebound. The team won 53 games last season and coming into this year they are looking for more and players like Kreider, Rick Nash and Stepan are looking to have big seasons.
Nash had his best regular season as a Ranger scoring wise, but he could not carry that over into the playoffs. The team made some changes this offseason, adding players like Emerson Etem, Viktor Stalberg, Jarret Stoll, Antti Raanta and Raphael Diaz in trades/free agency and names like Martin St. Louis, Carl Hagelin and Matt Hunwick are gone.
Kreider could be the key player for the Rangers, as he appears poised to break out and many see him as the most talented Ranger on the roster based on his skills and size. Kreider scored a career high 21 goals last season and he is looking to build on that. Stepan signed back with the Rangers on a six year deal this offseason and that keeps one of the most important Ranger players on the roster. Stepan missed some time last season and still managed to put up 16 goals and his second highest total in points for the Rangers.
Prediction: Rangers win the Metro division again. And why not, they win the Stanley Cup too.
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