#Rangers embracing challenge of fan-free playoffs

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Pavel Buchnevich looks to make a move on Adam Pelech during the Rangers’ 2-1 exhibition loss to the Islanders on Wednesday night.
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The Rangers’ exhibition matchup with the Islanders came and went and served its purpose.

Though it resulted in a 2-1 loss, the Rangers got their first taste of competitive hockey since March, had an opportunity to shed any kinks they might have had and escaped without serious injury.

It was also their first fan-less experience, a surreal situation that many players were wary about long before arriving in the Toronto bubble.

“I thought when you’re on the ice playing, it wasn’t a whole lot different,” defenseman Jacob Trouba said. “I think on the bench is when you notice it the most. You can hear everything that’s said. There’s just not that extra buzz.”

That’s why it’ll be important for the Rangers to make their own energy, Trouba pointed out. Those are the kinds of lessons the Rangers were able to learn Wednesday night. Part of this whole downright-weird playoff tournament is pinpointing the unexpected factors that come with it.

“Definitely easier to communicate with teammates on the ice and on the bench,” Chris Kreider said. “There’s some times during the playoffs in certain buildings where you can barely hear yourself think. That’ll be different.”

The Rangers have two days to take what they learned against the Islanders and apply it before taking the ice for Game 1 of the play-in series with the Hurricanes on Saturday.

Following Wednesday’s loss, Kreider said there was “100 percent” enough time for the Rangers to make the necessary adjustments before Saturday.

“There’s going to be stuff you don’t like in every single game and there’s going to be stuff that you can take away from it regardless of what point in the season or playoffs you’re playing and that you can hang your hat on and say we did a good job,” he said. “But for having such a big layoff, going into a very strange situation, strange environment, playing an exhibition game a few days before a playoff game, I thought the boys competed hard and did well and tried to stick to the structure as well as we could have.

“You just want to cut your teeth a little bit going into that first game of the series.”

Kreider acknowledged that this will be some of his younger teammates’ first experience with playoff hockey. He described it as a “war of attrition,” where players need to get “comfortable being uncomfortable.”

As far as taking a loss just before play begins to count, Kreider said it couldn’t have mattered less. In fact, it may have worked in their favor.

“I can tell you that guys are a little pissed off and angry right now after that one,” he said. “Never like losing to the Islanders, having a bit of a chip on our shoulder going into the first playoff round is not a bad thing.”