GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- The New York Rangers have a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference First Round, just like they did year ago.
That's where the comparisons to last season's first-round exit stop.
"New year," defenseman K'Andre Miller said. "New team."
It would be easy for the Rangers to look back to last spring, when they led the New Jersey Devils 2-0 in the opening round only to lose in seven games, and talk about lessons learned now that they hold a 2-0 lead on the Washington Capitals going into Game 3 of the best-of-7 series at Capital One Arena on Friday (7 p.m. ET; MAX, MNMT, truTV, MSGSN, TNT, MSG, SN360, TVAS).
But minus the two-game series lead and a lot of the same core personnel, everything about this series against the Capitals and this season for the Rangers is different.
The obvious:
Last year, they were facing the Devils, who had home-ice advantage to start the series after setting single season team records with 52 wins and 112 points.
This year, New York is the team that set team single-season team records with 55 wins and 114 points, and Washington is a 91-point team that snuck into the playoffs in its 82nd game.
Last year, the Rangers easily skated to back-to-back 5-1 wins in Game 1 and 2.
This year, they escaped a physical, grinding Game 2 with a 4-3 win following a 4-1 victory in Game 1.
Last year, the Rangers had a 2-0 lead going home to Madison Square Garden.
This year, they're going on the road with it.
"Definitely, you know you're not going to get anything easy," defenseman Adam Fox said. "You win those two games last year, especially on the road, you think you can breathe easy coming home, but in playoffs it's never like that. I think especially now going on the road, we know we're stepping into a tough environment and we'll be ready for that. I don't think we're expecting anything to come easy, especially on the road, especially with a desperate team over there."
But underneath all of the obvious differences is the single most important change in the Rangers from last season to this season.
"New team identity," Miller said.
From back to front, the Rangers are a more aggressive and battle-ready team than they were last season.
They take part in competitive battle drills in every practice, 3-on-3 or 4-on-4 in tight spaces, in the corners, all inside the blue line. They loudly celebrate their wins, sticks in the air, hooting and hollering.
It goes back to the work ethic and compete coach Peter Laviolette talked about instilling when he was hired in June to replace Gerard Gallant.
The battle drills started during training camp. They will still engaging in them during practice Thursday.
"I think that's really built the chemistry in this locker room to push for wins," Miller said. "We saw what we could do throughout a whole 82-game season, obviously had some success there, and I think that's a great indicator of what our practices are like and how we instill this energy and way of doing things from practice to the game."
The competitiveness has made practice fun for them instead of a chore.
"It's all 1-on-1 battles, man-on-man stuff and that's how we want to play," defenseman Braden Schneider said. "You've got to win the battles to win the game and having that mindset is something you have to keep practicing.
"It's not easy to coast through some stuff and all of a sudden it's game time and it's time to go. I think it's great that we have that and it just keeps us in the mentality that we've got to compete."
Fox said executing the same battle drills Thursday, after taking Wednesday off, helps the Rangers stay sharp and ready to step into what they expect to be another hard, grinding, physical game against the Capitals on Friday.
"We talk about battles," Fox said, "and it's not just open-ice hits, it's little battles here and there and throughout the game there's a million of them. Winning those, that's the way we're trying to play."
A year ago, after scoring 10 goals and blowing out the Devils in Games 1 and 2, the Rangers came home for Game 3 and thought it would come easy. Soon enough, they were down 3-2 in the series and lost 4-0 in Game 7.
So now they can talk about learning from all of that, but that would just be addressing the obvious comparison with New York holding another 2-0 series lead.
But inside the room is a belief the Rangers already have learned from last year, that they already are better because of it, and their path back to a 2-0 series lead in the first round is the proof.
"There's a different feel in the locker room," forward Jimmy Vesey said. "We know what we have to do, how we have to play. A year older and I'd say a little more organized."
