The Rangers went 3-0 against the Lightning in the regular season, outscoring the two-time defending champions a combined 10-4. they have met just once in the postseason though, a seven-game conference final win by Tampa Bay in the 2014-15 season:

Rangers 4, Lightning 3 (SO)

The Rangers ended the 2021 portion of their season at 20-8-4 with a New Year’s Eve victory in Tampa. Barclay Goodrow scored twice against his former team but Corey Perry tied it at 3 with 1:57 to go. Igor Shesterkin stopped all three Tampa Bay attempts in the shootout before Mika Zibanejad won it with a goal against Brian Elliott.

Rangers 4, Lightning 0

The teams met again two days later, and this time it was all Rangers. Zibanejad scored a hat trick against star Lightning goalie Andre Vasilevskiy. It was over early as Zibanejad scored two power-play goals, and Ryan Strome added a goal all within 7 minutes and 9 seconds midway through the first period. Shesterkin made 38 saves for the shutout.

Rangers 2, Lightning 1

Zibanejad scored a power-play goal with 16 seconds to go, one-timing a cross-ice pass from Artemi Panarin, to give the Rangers the season sweep.

A year after the Rangers made it to the Stanley Cup Final, they won the Presidents’ Trophy and got back to the third round by beating the Penguins in five and Capitals in seven.

The Rangers took Game 1 at the Garden, 2-1, on Dominic Moore’s goal with 2:25 to go, but Game 2 was a disaster for the Blueshirts as Tyler Johnson scored a hat trick and Alex Killorn put in two.

Down in Tampa, Dan Boyle tied a back-and-forth Game 3 with a goal with 1:56 to go in regulation, but Nikita Kucherov won it for the Bolts in OT. Two nights later, the Rangers got even as Rick Nash scored the first and last goals in a 5-1 rout.

The Rangers’ home-ice advantage would betray them as they were shut out by Lightning goalie Ben Bishop by the same 2-0 score in both Games 5 and 7, an oddity considering how they filled the nets in a 7-3 victory in Tampa in between.