The mood was understandably somber when the Rangers arrived at their hotel in Pittsburgh following Game 4 of the team's First Round series against the Penguins. The Rangers had just lost the game, 7-2, to fall behind in the series, three-games-to-one, and now face elimination. As the players and staff began to gather in one of the hotel ballrooms for a post-game meal, Jacob Trouba walked into the room and delivered a message.
"Meeting room in 10 minutes."
The players filed out of the meal room and into the team's meeting room down the hall. While what was said in that meeting was not divulged at the time, everyone knows what happened in Game 5, Game 6, and Game 7 of that series, as the Rangers rallied to win each game and advance to the Second Round.
What Trouba did behind the scenes in that instance - calling a players-only meeting to help get the group back on track - was one of many examples in his tenure with the Rangers where his leadership was on display, even if it was behind the scenes and not known to the fans and media.
And it is a small example of why the Rangers organization made the decision to name Trouba the 28th captain in franchise history.
"Since he joined the Rangers, Jacob has consistently displayed all of the qualities we want in a leader on and off the ice," Rangers President and General Manager Chris Drury said. "As we look to take the next step as an organization, he is a role model for all of our players to follow and the perfect choice to be our captain."
"If you ask the guys in that locker room, 100% of them will tell you that he's been our captain without actually wearing the 'C' for the last couple of years," Chris Kreider said. "I'm incredibly happy for him to have this honor and to represent the team because of everything he does for us. He has broad shoulders and no matter the situation and context, he's unequivocally himself as a person and how he leads. There's no ego to him off the ice or on the ice, and he respects the game, his teammates, and his opponents."
Trouba is about to enter his fourth season with the Rangers, having been acquired by the team from Winnipeg following the 2018-19 season. When he joined the Rangers, he shared how it usually takes him time to get acclimated and feel comfortable in a new city with new teammates.
Over his first three seasons, Trouba became increasingly more comfortable in a leadership role. He had led in several ways, such as through his actions on the ice, as well as through his words off the ice. Ryan Lindgren said that Trouba has the ability to know how to put his best foot forward as a leader, whether it's through his words, actions, or both in some cases.
"Troubs is good at knowing when it's the right time to speak up," Lindgren said. "(After Game 4 against Pittsburgh) was such a critical point where we were down three-games-to-one in the series after that game, and we were not feeling great about ourselves. Troubs came in and had that meeting and told us not to worry and just focus on Game 5 and go from there.
"Troubs isn't going to be the loudest guy in the locker room, but he's certainly a guy that when he stands up and says something, everyone is going to shut their mouth and listen to him."
Adam Fox echoed Lindgren's feelings about Trouba stepping up after Game 4: "That is a great example. We were a young team with not much experience, and it's easy to get deflated going down three-games-to-one and losing the way we did. He's a guy who had a lot of experience, but he's not the oldest guy and has a great ability to communicate with the younger guys, and he has the respect of everyone.
"Troubs being able to pull everyone together and kind of change the attitude a little bit was huge for us, and what he did was obviously real important."
As Lindgren said, Trouba won't be the loudest player in the locker room, but one area where Trouba does lend his voice is on behalf of his teammates in dealing with coaches and the front office. Trouba has emerged as the primary intermediary between the players and head coach Gerard Gallant and his coaching staff. Gallant and the majority of his staff were in their first seasons with the Rangers last season and were getting adjusted to the players, just as the players were getting adjusted to Gallant. Trouba helped deliver the staff's message to the players, as well as a message from the players to the staff when necessary.
"To be honest, I was waiting for this to happen," Mika Zibanejad said. "I'm really excited for him. He is very honest and very genuine as a leader. Everyone in the locker room respects him and I think it was a great choice. What happened after Game 4 in Pittsburgh is an example of why he is the captain. It was very natural for him to call all of the guys together and deliver that message, it wasn't forced."
Trouba was one of six alternate captains that the Rangers had last season. While Kreider said that Trouba was the team's captain even though he didn't have the 'C', he also acknowledged that Trouba enables others to lead as well.
"In those well-timed meetings like after Game 4 against Pittsburgh, he really sets the tone and says the right things, but he also brings everyone else into the fold," Kreider said. "Everyone wants to have an impact and feels like they have a voice because that's the culture he's helped established. It's all about winning with him. He's truly team first, and there's zero ego."
Away from the rink, Trouba has gone out of his way in several instances to make new players feel welcome and comfortable. When the Rangers acquired Barclay Goodrow last summer, Trouba was the player who showed him around New York City upon his arrival.
"Right from day one from my time on the team, he was the definite leader," Goodrow said about Trouba. "Right when I signed with New York, he was the first guy to reach out and answer any questions that I had about the city and the team. It was pretty evident that he has what it takes and he sets the tone for our team."
Lindgren and Fox were both rookies in the NHL during Trouba's first season with the Rangers in 2019-20. Even at that point in time, Trouba went out of his way to take both defensemen under his wing.
"As young guys that first year, he made sure that we didn't feel stranded on our own," Lindgren recalled. "He made sure we were adjusting to the new lifestyle. Troubs is a guy that invites people over for dinners and just makes sure that everyone is feeling comfortable and part of the team, and that was huge for us young guys when we first got there."
"It's not something he had to do and he had no real need to ask us if we had any plans or wanted to go for dinner, but he did simple things like that for us our first year," Fox recalled. "Lindy and I have grown really close to Troubs. We started with the Rangers together and he's helped us out. He has a lot of experience so we go to him for that when we need to, but he's also not too much older where we have nothing in common. He's been perfect for us and helping us get adjusted."
Trouba has served as a role model for both young players and veterans alike. Perhaps no Ranger has benefitted more from Trouba's leadership than K'Andre Miller, who has played alongside Trouba as a defense pair for the majority of his first two NHL seasons. No defense pair played more minutes together in 5-on-5 situations than Miller and Trouba did this past season, and according to Miller, Trouba has played a key role in his acclimation to the NHL.
"It's been fun (to have) such a high-end guy to look up to," Miller said about Trouba during the Eastern Conference Final. "He took me under his wing and has kind of shown me the ropes (about) how things should be around here. He's a great leader and a lot of guys look up to him on this team."
Another young defenseman, Braden Schneider, was dubbed a "mini Trouba" when he was recalled by the Rangers in January. Like Miller, Schneider has learned from Trouba during his time with the Rangers.
"I try to model my game a lot after Trouba," Schneider said at one point during this past season. "He plays the game hard and I think we have similar styles. (The "mini Trouba" nickname) is a compliment in every way. To come here and to learn from him first-hand has been awesome."
Given the respect he has garnered from his teammates, it came as no surprise that Trouba was a co-winner of the Players' Player Award, which recognizes the Ranger who, as selected by his teammates, "best exemplifies what it means to be a team player." There was seldom a day when the team was in New York that Trouba wasn't one of the first players to arrive at either MSG Training Center in Tarrytown or Madison Square Garden.
"He's the guy that we all follow," Goodrow said. "Even without him wearing the 'C' last year, he was the guy that we all looked up to."
Trouba's play from the first game of the season through the end of the season was representative of a team that adopted a "one game at a time" mentality, as Gallant and several players praised Trouba's consistency at various times. Following the Rangers' Game 7 win against the Hurricanes in the Second Round, Kreider said that Trouba was "our most consistent player all year."
"He brings it every game and I think that's the most important thing," Goodrow said. "He plays the game hard and he plays it the right way. He's a guy that other teams don't want to play against; he's physical and he stands up for his teammates. He's a guy that everyone, not just the young guys, can learn from on the ice."
Trouba finished the past season with 39 points (11 goals and 28 assists) and a plus-25 rating, but while his offensive production increased, it was his defensive effort that earned the praise and admiration of his teammates. Trouba was credited with 207 hits during the season and demonstrated his ability to impact the outcome of a game with a clean, hard hit. He also sacrificed his body on a nightly basis, as his 177 blocked shots were the second-most in the NHL during the regular season.
Trouba was the only NHL player who registered at least 200 hits and 175 blocked shots during the 2021-22 season, as well as the only NHL player who recorded at least 70 hits and 50 blocked shots during the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Since the NHL started tracking hits and blocked shots in 2005-06, Dan Girardi is the only Ranger other than Trouba who has accumulated 200 or more hits and 175 or more blocked shots in the same season.
"He's a beast," Lindgren said. "He lays one of those hits and kind of sets the tone for the game. Every game, you know he is going to be dialed in and you know he is going to give 110%, whether it's a big hit, blocking a shot, or creating something offensively.
"He does it all and he leads by example. When you watch him go out there and give everything that he's got, it makes everyone want to follow suit and play the same way he does. Everything that he does on the ice translates to what everyone else wants to do."
Fox added that Trouba "wants to lead by example and be that guy that we're looking to. It's not always scoring a goal or doing something like that, but something as simple as a hit could help change momentum in a game. He knows what he can do to help the team."
When asked about Trouba's style of play, Gallant compared him to Scott Stevens, the Hall of Fame defenseman who Rangers fans know well from all of the battles the Rangers had against him when he played with the Devils (Stevens played 13 of his 22 career NHL seasons with the Devils, and he was New Jersey's captain for 12 of his 13 seasons with the team).
"When you're on the ice (with him), you have to keep your head up," Gallant said of Trouba. "Jacob is a clean hockey player who plays a hard game (and) plays a good, honest game, but he's an old-school guy. He comes to the rink every day with a smile on his face and he's working hard, and he goes out there and does his job. He's not trying to hurt people out there; he just plays a heavy game."
The decision to name a captain is not made lightly, especially by an Original Six franchise based in a city such as New York. Over 1,000 players appeared in at least one game with the Rangers in franchise history throughout their first 95 seasons, and only 27 of them had the honor of being named the team's captain over that span.
Trouba is ready for the challenge and everything that comes with it. As Goodrow said, "he has all the tools it takes to not only be a captain in the NHL, but the captain for the Rangers."
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