“I’AM LEAVING” Mika Zibanejad has announced that he is leaving the New York Rangers due to…..

The New York Rangers have been using the Carolina Hurricanes as their measuring stick for the past few seasons.

“They’ve been the standard of the division for the last couple years, and even this year they had a great season,” Rangers captain Jacob Trouba said Wednesday.

“Coming into this year, that’s the team you want to overtake, you want to be ahead of in the standings. It’s no different in the playoffs.”

New York is halfway to flipping the script on Carolina.

The Rangers finished ahead of the Hurricanes in the regular season, winning the Metropolitan Division and the Presidents’ Trophy with 114 points, three more than Carolina.

Eliminate the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Second Round for the second time in three seasons, and the narrative will change to Carolina having to use New York as its measuring stick.

“We believe in ourselves in here and we know what’s ahead of us,” Trouba said.

“It’s going to be a long, hard-fought series, and that’s what we’re preparing for.”

The Rangers started to prepare for the Hurricanes on Wednesday, their first time on the ice since finishing a four-game sweep of the Washington Capitals in the first round with a 4-2 win Sunday.

They officially found out Carolina would be their next opponent Tuesday, when the Hurricanes won 6-3 against the New York Islanders to win that first-round series in five games.

Game 1 of the best-of-7 series will be at Madison Square Garden, but the schedule has not been announced yet.