The strange thing about this period, is that I really didn’t like what I saw. I know, kind weird when you consider how poor their stats look on paper, and how they are finally leading a game, and how they finally generated a ton of offensive chances. The reason being is that there was a far greater separation between the forwards and defenseman than usual. Whether that’s by design or not, I don’t know, but what I do know is the Rangers are sending all 3 forwards deep into the offensive zone, leaving the defenseman to man the points alone, and are relying on their speed to get themselves back in defensive position if the play heads back the other way. Usually they don’t send that extra guy down there to try to get the puck, instead they rely on him to cover the slot or create a 3-man defensive barrier.
I’m not sure why the Rangers are doing this, I guess it could be to try to generate more offense, but against a team that is as high powered as the Lightning are, it probably isn’t something I would do as much.
I wouldnt be surprised to see a lot more odd-man rushes than usual against us because of this new found offensive pressure we are putting on. It’s the old ying and yang, try to put more offensive pressure on, and youll give up defense. Its a dangerous tight-rope to walk, let’s hope it works out.
