Wait, you want me to go away again?

Yeah, I don’t blame ya, while I was away the Rangers rallied past a pretty good Caps team to advance to the 2nd round, and now that I’ve come back, we’ve fallen behind 0-3 to a Boston Bruins team that I felt pretty confident playing against before the series started.

But you know what?

We’re losing because they are flat out better. Stop making excuses or blaming the refs, or the coach, or the GM, or Richards…ok, you can blame Richards, and we’ll come to that, but this is why we are losing….

THEY ARE BETTER.

THEY KNOW HOW TO WIN.

That’s it. Nothing really more to say about that. The Bruins are the New York Rangers, except they are bigger, stronger, and tougher. It would be one thing if we were more skilled, or faster. We aren’t. They’re better, and they’re winning. Sometimes, that’s what happens. Going into this season we all knew Boston, Pittsburgh and the Rangers were the 3 best teams in the East. Lo and Behold all three are in the 2nd round, we just go the shitty honor of playing one of them rather than the 4th team in the equation.

And we got the privilege of doing so without Staal or Clowe, and a pretty banged up squad to boot.

I’m just not sure how on Earth the Rangers will rectify our problems going forward. Not unless they have a magical trade up their sleeves.

Now, let’s get to the elephant in the room.

Brad Richards.

Yeah, boy, beavers been really bad. Like, Ryan Hollweg bad…but at least Hollweg brought MOAR JAM to the team. Richards has just been PUTRID, on the PP, he’s a turnover machine, on his shifts he can’t seem to do ANYTHING correctly.

I’m not even sure where to begin with this guy.

My guess is, if he’s not bought out this summer, he will be the season after. The reason though is NOT because he’s all of a sudden gotten super slow. The dude has always been slow. He’s a guy who’s gotten by on his IQ, not his physical talents. Look at Derek Stepan, postseason aside, he had a terrific season, and I’d argue he’s a WORSE skater than Richards.

Richards really needs a fresh start, I sure hope a long offseason can rejuvenate him, if not, next season will be another disappointment. Nash can’t do it alone.

No. 4-0, 4-1 AT BEST.

The Rangers played a pretty complete, and tough game. I felt like we dominated for large stretches of the game and completely neutralized Backstrom, Johannsen, Ovechkin, and Green. Give a TON of credit to John Tortorella for matching lines so damn well (and thank Oates for being an idiot not trying to get away from matchups)

The emergence of the 2 Dereks (Stepan and Brassard) has been quite noticeable, especially in their TOI, both guys played more minutes than Brad Richards did (rightfully so) and both guys had a huge impact on this game. Stepan in particular was really going tonight, He picked up that goal, but was all over the puck with so many tremendous plays, he helped establish our forecheck better than most, just a fantastic game. Brassard showed his terrific hands yet again on the momentum shifting goal that Dan Girardi scored. With everything on the Caps side, Brassard made a superb backhand saucer pass to Girardi who rifled home goal number 3.

MZA was also noticeable at times as well, playing pretty well, getting his sticks in the lanes, and breaking up plays, really liked what I saw from him.

On the flip side, Rick Nash continues to be an abomination. Not sure what’s wrong with him, but we need him to really start getting going. Luckily Ryane Clowe is back in the lineup, and actually played a really good game.

Of course, there’s always negatives, and while the play of Nash is worrisome, it’s nothing compared to the play of Henrik Lundqvist. At times in this series he’s been God-like, and at times, just awful. Tonight, the team really bailed him out, Henrik gave up 2 VERY soft goals. I don’t fault him on the first one, that was all on Eminger, but the other 2, boy, Henrik usually stops those. Tonight we won in spite of Henrik, not because of…how often does that happen?

Also, we gotta worry about Marc Staal, does anyone know what happened? I’m guessing concussion symptoms, or his vision started to blur again? Wish I knew more.

OK, remember, no more Post Game wraps for 10 days. I hope to be making some short recaps when I get back home, with the Rangers on the cups of the Eastern Conference Finals

Now, bring on that Eiffel Tower!

I call it like it is, I don’t sugar coat a shitty win and I don’t get down on a well played loss.

But, we’ll get to that shortly.

There was one thing tonight that I liked above all else. No, it wasn’t that our power play finally showed a sputtering of life. No, it wasn’t that we score 4 goals after scoring 1 the previous 2 games combined. No, what impressed me more than anything, what had me cheering when the final horn blew was the resolve this team showed tonight. In a back-and-forth affair, the Rangers had many chances to fall to pieces. 3 crazy goals off of deflections, an early deflating goal, a 3rd period come-back goal off of a nothing play, and a penalty on a dive-and-a-half by AO…but the Rangers still did what they had to do. They buckled down, they played really great hockey, and they picked up a win….amazingly, with yet ANOTHER goalpost hit…how many is that now?

Still, I’m going to give it to you straight, the Rangers didn’t play a great game tonight. Rick Nash was terrible aside from his assist..he’s pressing big time, trying to do it all himself, and instead coughing the puck up time after time after time. Rick, buddy, do us all a favor, when you see 3 guys ahead of you, instead of trying to stick handle through them, every once in a while, go wide, circle behind the net, and pick up the trailer when the reinforcements get there or re-set once you have some help. A turnover when your team is changing, that everyone can see coming a mile away, is NOT a good play. Even if one out of every 100 times you go 1 on 3 and are able to burn through for a goal, the other 99 times you’re creating an odd man rush against. 1 on 1? Have at it…maybe even 1 on 2…but 1 on 3, or 1 on 4? Play it smart.

Am I the only one who really wanted Brad Richards to get a goal when his blistering slapper hit the post? Richards really needs something good to happen to him, another guy who’s pressing, who we really need to snap out of it.

LOVING John Moores game. I’m sure I’m not the only one, but man oh man, this kid is quickly turning into an absolute stud on the blueline. Between him, Staal, Girardi, McDonagh, MDZ, Stralman, Mcilrath, Skjei, etc the Rangers have some awfully good depth on the blueline in the future years…

But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Carl Hagelin is not playing well. He had a few great shifts in the first game, and other than that I don’t see the smart and tenacious play we’re used to seeing. Kid needs to wake up.

Marc Staal played tonight, and the lift to the team was obvious, but he didn’t play well. Dare I say, Eminger probably would have given us better minutes, but Staal needs to go through the break-in period all players go through when they come back after a big time injury, needs to catch back up to speed, too bad he couldn’t get a few games in going into the playoffs. We could sure use 100% Marc Staal, or, at the very least, not ultra-gassed-after-15-seconds Marc Staal. He’ll be fine though, I’m not worried.

That’s all, I’m out.

Remember, next game will be my final post game post till the 20th, going on my honeymoon with my beautiful wife. Hopefully there’s Rangers hockey to talk about!

No, 8 is the number of shots the Rangers allowed in Overtime.

And we get how many?

7? 5? Maybe 2? How about 1….give me 1.

No, the Rangers couldn’t muster up 1 effing shot on goal in overtime. We, once again, could not score.

I don’t care have an answer as to why we can’t score. Hit 2 or 3 posts yet again, nothing to show from it. Henrik Lundqvist is brilliant, nothing to show for it.

When will this team finally wake the hell up offensively?

This is embarrassing.

I’ve got nothing else……seriously. What more is there to say?

We’re the New York Rangers, when we finally have an all-world goalie, we can’t muster up 1 fucking goal to win him a playoff game when he makes 6 or 7 mind blowing saves.

That’s all it took….1. 1 god damn it 1.

Where was Brad Richards? Building himself a dam? The Beaver was completely invisible, yet again. Really, aside from Ryan Callahan in the first 10ish minutes, and Rick Nash the final 2 periods (not counting OT) the entire Rangers forward group were an embarrassment out there tonight.

Flat out embarrassment.

I’m disgusted…..and, out of here.

If the Rangers don’t win the goalie matchup game in and game out, they will lose this series. If Henrik Lundqvist doesn’t outplay the ever loving crap out of Holtby, the Rangers will not only lose this series, they very well may get swept.

Why?

Because we are not the Chicago Blackhawks that can get by without great goaltending. We are not the Pittsburgh Penguins. We are the New York Rangers. If our goalie isn’t all world, we lose. We don’t have a chance. We’re done.

That’s what tonight came down to, I felt the game, outside of the first 10 minutes, was pretty even, possibly even a Ranger edge. But our inability to finish our chances coupled with Henrik Lundqvists pedestrian goaltending led to a loss.

And it will keep happening, game in and game out, until Lundqvist plays better.

I think he knows it too, you can tell from his post game demeanor. The Rangers could have won this game if Henrik makes those stops. I know it’s tough to blame a goalie when you only score 1, but believe it or not, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to give Holtby credit for making the saves he had to for his club to win, and going to put the blame on Henrik. Henrik usually stops those breakaways. Henrik should NEVER have given up that Chimera goal. Take away those 2, it’s a 1-1 game where the Rangers are outplaying the Caps.

Lundqvist has to be better.

The power play has to be better.

We gotta stay more disciplined….and boy oh boy do we need Marc Staal back in a bad way.

Offense–>Capitals

Defense–>Rangers

Specialty Teams–>Capitals

Goaltending–>Rangers

Coaching–>Rangers (though Oates is a very good coach)

Experience–>Push

Health–>Capitals

How the Rangers can win–>The Rangers have really only 1 chance to win this series. They CAN NOT play the 6 goalie system as they did in the playoffs last year against the Caps. The Caps, thankfully, tried to do the same back to us and it led to a lot of even play in that series, this go around, the Caps will push the pace, and against the 6 goalie system that can lead to LONG stretches of being trapped in your own zone, it leads to your goalie having to single handedly win you games, and it leads to…well, a very short, very upsetting series for the Rangers. The way the Rangers will have to win this will be with puck control and getting the puck in deep and forechecking quickly….Carl Hagelin, I’m looking at you. MZA, you too. Our top 2 lines will need their speedsters to cause some havoc with aggressive forecheck causing turnovers. If the Rangers can get in deep, control the puck, make the Caps play in their own zone, and get Staal back early in the series the Rangers will win this in 6.

How the Capitals can win–>If the Capitals can get out of their zone quickly, getting the pucks from the dump ins and turning them up to their forwards while under duress, the Rangers will get swept, or maybe push it to 5 tops. Rangers simply do not have the firepower to go toe to toe with the Caps, even with Nash, Richards, Brassard, Stepan, and Cally. More importantly, we are the injured team, and not having Staal to bail us out will hurt…a lot.

Prediction?

Rangers in 6. I think this team will finally do what they have failed to do for years….actually out offense the other team by playing in the other teams zone.

Wow. Of all the teams to come out and just give up on a season, you’d think the Devils wouldn’t be it.

This was a pretty proud organization, with a pretty impressive history, even if I despise them with every fiber of my being. So to see them come out, and flat out not give a shit if they win or lose, was QUITE shocking.

Lucky us.

This was a game the Rangers absolutely 100% HAD to have. Luckily we did, and locked in the #6 spot for us thanks to the Sens failing to beat the Flyers. Flyers have done the Rangers some impressive favors the past few nights by taking out the Icelanders and the Senators. Thanks Flybags!

What I liked about tonight was that really we were a 2-line team. Not relying on the Stepan line alone to carry us. Nash, Zucc and Richards were arguably better than the Stepan, Callahan, Hagelin trio. That’s really saying something. Part of it is that both Zucc and Richards are trying to find Nash…and, well, Nash can score. Makes sense. Richards has been playing some pretty good hockey of late and that bodes well for the Rangers heading into the series with Washington. I don’t think this is going to be like last season, Washington tried to out-Ranger the Rangers. They are playing some pretty good hockey, and their PP is absolutely Lethal, with that said the Rangers are scoring a lot of goals for the most part of late, and that bodes well since last year we couldn’t score playoff goals to save our lives.

Playoff preview coming probably tomorrow. Been pretty busy of late, several business related things have been going on at the same time which is basically making me work 10-14 hours a day 7 days a week. Finding time to write this blog and watch Rangers games=less time sleeping.

One other heads up. I will be out of the country May 10th to May 20th (going on my belated honeymoon with my wife), so no blog updates then. Sadly, looks like I’ll be missing some playoff hockey (hopefully)

John Tortorella…you are dead wrong.

The Rangers did not play a good game tonight. Sure, they had some chances, sure they had some GREAT chances, but that doesn’t mean they played a good game.

Not when you give up the quality chances we did, and not when you make such idiotic mistakes in a game you absolutely had to have against a team that is decimated by injuries, and…we….kinda sucks.

I’ll take the win, but I wasn’t all that happy. Those 2 mistakes were hideous, and a team like us just shouldn’t be making those kinda mistakes.

It would be one thing if we finished on those chances and went up like 5-1 or something.

We didn’t play smart, we didn’t finish on our chances, and it took a soft call and a lucky bounce to get us in the playoffs through the front door, rather than the back door. Also, let’s note the Jets fell apart AFTER we won our game.

That’s a good game? I dunno.

This just didn’t sit right with me. Kinda the opposite of the way I felt against the Panthers. I just didn’t like what I saw, way too many mistakes. A lot of the chances we gave up were also either shot wide, or blocked by our team in front.

I don’t like the way we just give up the points too. Far too many teams just move the puck up high and start creating movement down low to re-set their offense. It’s annoying, and leads to long stretches of being trapped in your zone. I like the 5 goalie mentality, but we don’t challenge the points when we have the opportunity, which is annoying as all hell.

But, they didn’t DESERVE to lose. Let’s face it, they badly outplayed the Panthers, and a goalie stole the game for the other team.
I know people want to nitpick the small stuff, but to me, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is, this was a game that the Rangers had to win BECAUSE of their horrendous play early in the season. They put themselves to be in a spot where even if they play a great game, it may not be enough.

This is what happens when you sleepwalk through parts of a season.

Don’t blame Henrik.

Don’t blame Torts.

Blame the team that didn’t show up night in and night out early in the year. Their game has haunted us, and forced us to play .700+ hockey to just barely squeeze into the playoffs.

Not good.

Of course, there were some positives, I thought both MZA and John Moore played outstanding games. Clearly MZA was the best Ranger on the ice tonight, creating chances galore, getting under the oppositions skin, and getting a whole heaping pile of minutes (seemingly) thanks to his great play.

But, again, it’s not enough…..and I just knew something like this would happen. Rangers would play a good game, lose, and everyone would freak out. And they should….but not because of tonight, because of games earlier in the year, like against the Sabres months back, or against the Jets….games we just didn’t show up for. Those are why you should be mad, not tonight.

Tonight was a bit different though, you’d have to say, for the most part, the Rangers outplayed the Devils pretty dramatically.

Sure, you could point to the reffing which was laughably bad (in our favor), but the play on the ice did dictate the score, we deserved to win.

And now, somehow, the Rangers find themselves within 1 point of the #6 spot which they desperately want/need. Rangers need to avoid the Penguins in the first round as much as humanly possible, that team has just way too much talent for us to have to deal with in the first round, even if by some miracle we beat them, you know it would take a helluva lot out of us to do it.

Looking at the schedules you have to think it’s a push between the Isles and Rangers, so the Rangers could easily find themselves finishing behind the suddenly red-hot Isles, but the Sens have a much more difficult schedule, and you could see us surpassing them and getting the Broo-ins in the first round, a much better matchup for us than the Pens, for sure.

Getting back to these 2 games, I think the thing that stands out is how the Rangers, more than anything, are finally getting some bounces go for them, which is leading to confidence, which is leading to more bounces.

That, and Brad Richards has played pretty well, and really it’s not about the goals he’s scored, he just looks better out there…his demeanor, his focus, confidence…everything seems better…I wonder if it’s being the 3rd line center that’s helping him out? Clearly Brassard and Stepan have usurped him as a top 2 center, but as a 3rd liner, Brad Richards has been pretty good. Except you shouldn’t have a 7ish million dollar guy be your 3rd line center.

Meh, whatever, just win!