DENVER — Jacob Trouba wouldn’t say he’s consciously thinking about landing hits before a game even starts, but the way the Rangers’ defenseman has been playing surely has opponents thinking about it.
“I guess it is coincidence,” Trouba said after delivering a momentum-shifting hit on Nashville’s Luke Kunin in the Rangers’ 1-0 loss Sunday night. “It’s just presented itself three games out of the last four, whatever it is. It’s not something I go to bed thinking about or think about before the game, I’m more worried about skating and moving my feet and all the other little things that go into my game. When the physicality is there, it’s there.”
Trouba has always been a physical competitor, but it’s reached a game-changing level in recent matchups. After knocking out Jujhar Khaira in an unfortunate play in which the Blackhawks winger had his head down, and leveling the Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon the following game, Trouba laid out Kunin on Sunday night to keep the streak going.
The hits have been textbook shoulder-first checks, which force the Rangers’ opponents to be alert and aware of where Trouba is on the ice.
The Rangers’ Jacob Trouba drills Nashville’s Luke Kunin during the second period. John Munson“Jake’s been doing that a lot for us lately,” Chris Kreider said. “It seems like those [hits] are perfectly timed. Maybe when we’re not playing as north-south as we should, not getting into bodies. It definitely gets the bench going when he steps up and hits someone as clean and as hard as that.
“In that same token, his willingness to jump up into the play and fire pucks to the net and play the right way, I think sets the tone as much as those big hits do. Right around that same time, you saw him — not necessarily leading the rush — but pushing the play, getting pucks in, funneling everything down toward the net.
“He really epitomizes the way we want to play and he does it so consistently.”
The Rangers added players with snarl this past offseason to change the makeup of their lineup and the team has successfully played a harder game as a result. The last few matchups, however, the Blueshirts haven’t been as aggressive.
Despite sitting with the fifth-most hits in the NHL with 705, the Rangers were out-hit 39-22 by the Predators on Sunday. Trouba was tied with Barclay Goodrow and Dryden Hunt for the team-lead with four, which gave the veteran defenseman 25 total hits in his last six games.
Kreider and Ryan Strome recorded two hits apiece, while Ryan Reaves and Ryan Lindgren were credited with just one each. For context, Reaves has registered just a single hit only two other times prior to Sunday’s matchup — excluding the first game against Calgary when he suffered a lower-body injury and went to the locker room early.
Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s games against the Avalanche and Coyotes, respectively, mark the Rangers’ sixth back-to-back set of the season. The Rangers are 3-1-1 in the first game and 2-2-1 in the second.
The Rangers enter Tuesday’s game with wins in four straight road games and five of their last six.
