How Rangers plan to stay sharp during layoff before facing Hurricanes

The official dates and times for the first games of Round 2 are anyone’s guess as Round 1 wraps up around the NHL, but the Rangers have established season-long habits that should benefit them while they await their second-round series against the Hurricanes.

Whether it’s four, five or more days of practice, the Blueshirts will continue to foster the competitive aspects of their on-ice sessions that have kept them game ready on a day-to-day basis.

“I think we approach it how we’ve approached every practice,” Braden Schneider said after the Rangers returned to the ice Wednesday morning following two days off in preparation for their second-round series against the Hurricanes . “We made sure we have a ton of compete drills out there, and we’re always going against each other a million miles an hour, so I think we just have to make sure we’re keeping that mindset of being competitive and working for everything.

“We keep practicing like we did today and it’ll just keep us sharp. Feels like we practice so hard against each other, games and practices are both hard. I think that’s important, and it’s good that we do it like that.

“We’ll be ready for them and looking at practice, we’ve just got to make sure that our minds are sharp and we keep that competitive switch on.”

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Head coach Peter Laviolette made a point to follow a similar process to what the Rangers did at the conclusion of the regular season, when they had two days off before returning to practice ahead of their first-round matchup with the Capitals.

After acknowledging that breaks in the playoffs can swing either way at the conclusion of Round 1, Laviolette noted that a positive is how the Rangers were able to gear their first day back at practice toward preparing for the Hurricanes.

“That’s a chance for them, inside of that playoff series, to get away from it for a second and let their bodies heal up,” Laviolette said. “And then it’s time to go back to work. Today was the beginning of the stretch that we’ll use to prepare to play the next opponent, which we found out [Tuesday night] who it is.”

Playoffs about to get real now for Rangers

Adam Fox did not participate in the Rangers’ practice on Wednesday for what the team described as “maintenance” purposes.

The 2021 Norris Trophy winner was banged up in Game 4, during which he was involved in the same knee-on-knee collision with Capitals defenseman Nick Jensen as the one with Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho earlier this season, which sidelined Fox for 10 games.

Zac Jones served as Fox’s placeholder alongside Ryan Lindgren.

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There were no other changes to the Rangers lineup in practice Wednesday.

Jonny Brodzinski rotated in the bottom-six, and Filip Chytil rotated in the top-six.

Lindgren said he called his brother, Washington goalie Charlie Lindgren, on Tuesday to talk about the Rangers-Capitals first-round series .

“It was definitely special to get to play against him,” the defenseman said. “He’s got nothing to hang his head about, he had an unbelievable year. A huge reason why that team made the playoffs. I said the same thing [in the handshake line], ‘I love you.’

“How lucky am I to have an older brother like that and a role model like that. I can look up to him and how hard he works and what he does every day.”

Their mother and grandfather were in attendance for Games 3 and 4.

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