Sorry for the delay in getting this up. I’ve been having internet issues and finally just decided to write this thing on my phone. You can imagine there may be typos in this, and I won’t be able to format it all nicely like usual so please bear with me.

Offense:
Edge here has to go to the senators. The rangers do have a top goal scorer in gabby, but the sens easily match that with a top five point getter in spezza. They also have karlsson, michalek, and alfredsson, which the rangers can only match up with richards and callahan. The senators are a more explosive team, they play a more up tempo system and have given us fits all year long. They have an uncanny ability to get the rangers to open up. They make us want to trade chances with them and that is how they massacre teams. They outscored the Rangers by 29 goals in the season, giving them the 4th ranked offense in the entire NHL to the Rangers 11th. The rangers need to concede that the sens are better than us offensively. We need to get our goals when they come, but mostly wear them out with a physical pounding their grandchildren will feel.

Defense:

Rangers get the big time edge here. Not only are the rangers defenseman significantly better, more mobile, stronger, and more intelligent, but the Rangers forwards also are worlds better defensively than the Senators forwards. The Rangers are built to win 2-1 games, not 6-5 games. The Rangers allowed 65 fewer goals than the Senators did this season, giving them the 3rd ranked defense in the NHL to Ottawas 24th. This is what should put the Rangers over the top. Their ability to dictate how the game is played in the defensive zone. Give the Senators NOTHING, don’t go outside their comfort zone. Play strong in their own zone, block a ton of shots, and win the war of attrition.

Goaltending:

Another big time edge for the Rangers. Henrik Lundqvist was ranked 3rd in the NHL in wins (Anderson was 11th), 4th in Goals Against Average (Anderson was ranked 43rd removing goalies with fewer than 17 starts). Lundqvist was 3rd in save percentage (Anderson was 26th), and Henrik was 3rd in shutouts (Anderson tied for 24th). Quite simply, Henrik Lundqvist outclasses Anderson by a significant margin. However, the X-Factor here is that Anderson is a guy who has played VERY well against the Rangers, and Lundqvist has not played all that well against the Senators since the lockout. This may be a similar case to the Washington series a few years back when Varlamov outplayed Lundqvist despite Lundqvist having overwhelmingly better numbers than Varlamov.

This is Henriks year to shine, I have a feeling he’s going to come up big this series. I think the guy knows just how important this year is because the Rangers do have a legitimate chance to make it to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Coaching:

Another big time edge to Torts. The guy has won a Stanley Cup, in all likelyhood will be a finalist for the Adams trophy if he doesn’t win it outright, and has taken a team that was almost universally picked by the fans to the pundits to finish in the 4-10 range this season to the top spot in the Eastern Conference despite the Rangers playing in what may be the toughest division in all of sports. Torts is a master at getting the most out of his players, I expect nothing else.

X-Factor:

Will Chris Kreider get to play? Who knows. Will he lead the team in scoring or something insane like that? No. However, you could see the kid come in and contribute at a .3PPG pace, he’s definitely good enough to do that. His speed is gamebreaking, and his offensive talents are undeniable. Will he get into the game? who knows. Carl Hagelin though may be a huge key to the Rangers. He has not played well as of late, his 2 linemates have had to carry him on the ice. Is he fatigued? Has the NHL figured him out? Personally I think it’s more of the former. He doesn’t have that jump in his game, he doesn’t seem to be as tenacious as before, and it’s hurt both him, and his line. If Hagelin can get his game back, and I think he will, he could be the guy to watch this series.

Prediction:

I want to pick the Rangers in 5, but to be safe, I’m going to say the Rangers in 6. I know the Sens have great numbers against us, I know this is a young team, blah blah blah, but the long and the short of it is this. The Rangers are better than the Senators. We are built to win playoff games. Don’t be surprised if Ottawa takes 1 of the first 2 first games, and then the Rangers steamroll from then on. Remember, it’s a series not a 1 game playoff.

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I gotta tell you. I’m A-OK with the Rangers not having to play the Washington Capitals in the first round. To me, that may have been the worst draw for us out of all our options. I just don’t feel we match up at all against that team. The Rangers do not do well against team with big time offensive powerhouses. They don’t do well against the Pens, they don’t do well against the Caps, they don’t do well against the Lightning. Why? Because we don’t have the talent to go toe to toe with those kinds of team. Period.

What the Rangers do well, is play against balanced teams, like the Ottawa Senators. Teams with several weapons interspersed in the lineup, but no real monster player that is impossible to shut down. Jason Spezza is a damn good player. He’s no Alex Ovechkin (despite what the points may say). Michael, Alfredsson, Karlsson, those are good players, but they don’t scare me the way AO and Backstrom scare me. Not at all.

Do the Rangers have a great record against the Sens? No. But, of their 3 losses, 1 was in a shootout, and 1 was with Biron in net. The 3rd the Rangers actually outplayed the Sens, but Anderson stood on his head and stole them a win.

Is it possible the Sens could beat us? Sure, but to me, it’s less likely than the Caps beating us. The Rangers can, and should be the Senators, who are not playing very good hockey at the moment. Starting at home will help a ton.

With regards to this game tonight, I don’t really think the Rangers played all that badly. They got some good chances, but couldn’t score. Gabby himself had how many point blank chances where he didn’t convert? And it seemed like everything the Caps threw at the net somehow found it’s way in. Screens, deflections, etc. They didn’t have a ton of super high quality chances, but they made their chances count.

Yes, on one hand I am saying the Rangers played well enough to win, and on the other I’m saying I don’t want the Caps. But that makes my point, the Caps are a team that is most definitely good enough to win, even when they are outplayed. THAT is what scares me about them. Only 2 teams in the East that scare me are the Caps and the Pens, and we don’t have to face either of them in the first round, and it’s highly unlikely we would face either of them in the 2nd round either.

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This was a meaningless game, I watched it while I was doing other stuff, Sorry guys, really no insight other than, Lundqvist stops most of those goals. Rangers really didn’t have their hearts in it, and I dont blame em. This game meant less than nothing.

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I’ve made it no secret that I am a huge John Tortorella fan. The guy is my favorite coach ever to lead the team I love. Yes, more than Mike Keenan, certainly more than Tom “the horse is out of the barn” Renney. Torts has an uncanny ability to squeeze out every single last drop of effort out of his squads, and this Rangers team is the epitome of that.

Let’s be real here folks. This team isn’t good enough to be a team that still controls it’s own destiny with regards to the presidents trophy. This team shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same sentence as the presidents trophy, and yet, with 2 games to go, they have a very real chance of winning it, having to win 1 against the Pens, and 1 against the Caps. They can do that. They have the leadership to do so. They have the inner belief to do so, and it would be a monumental accomplishment if they do. Clinching the #1 seed in the East is mind boggling though. You could almost understand them doing it if Richards and Gaborik were each on pace for 100+ points. But they aren’t. Gabby is having a monster season, but Richards was having a typical first year transitional year up until a little over a month ago when he caught fire.

Somehow though, Torts has been able to deal with injuries to their #1 defenseman (and their #4 defenseman), has been able to overcome the Rangers getting pretty much NOTHING from Brandon Dubinsky in the goal total department, overcome Brian Boyle having a huge step backwards in his offensive production, overcoming pretty average years by Stepan and Anisimov, all the while integrating Ryan McDonagh into the top pairing, and Carl Hagelin on to the top line.

If that doesn’t warrant the Adams, It’s only because of what’s happened in St. Louis.

Or is it?

Look at St. Louis’ record folks. They are a 1 trick pony. They win at home. They are unstoppable at home. But on the road, they are a below average team. The Rangers on the other hand, on the road, at home, in Europe, on the moon, in alternate dimensions, it doesn’t matter, they come to play, they play hard, and they are consistent. Their game plan doesn’t change at all. Kudos to Torts, the guy deserves a Jack Adams nomination for sure, and, in my personal opinion, deserve the trophy outright.

On to this game. While the score was 5-3, and the Rangers did go up by a 4-0 mark, this was not a 5-3 game. The #1 star should have been Henrik Lundqvist, who wasn’t just on his game, but he was playing at a whole other level tonight. This was about as good as Henrik has been at any point this season. He was the single biggest reason the Rangers won this game. Just watch the highlights above, the save he made on Simmonds and Rinaldo, are you kidding me? Holy crap.

A resurgent power play certainly helps as well. We’ve known all along that if the Rangers were going to do anything in the playoffs, they would need their specialty teams to be a lot better. Quietly, the Rangers have climbed from 29th in the NHL to 22nd in a few weeks. It may not seem like much, but that’s a huge jump to see this late in the season. If the Rangers can make their PP a legitimate weapon, it helps them at even strength as the opposition is less likely to go over that line. The Rangers are a GREAT even strength team with the 5th best Goals For/Allowed ratio in the NHL. It all trickles down, make the PP better, means more time at even strength. The Rangers dominate at even strength, this means more likelyhood they win the game they are designed to play.

Give a lot of credit to Ryan McDonagh too, a goal and an assist, along with a pretty damn good game against a pretty special player in Claude Giroux (who by the way gets away with a lot of dirty little plays that happen when the refs aren’t looking). Giroux had 3 assists, but considering how good he is, sometimes the guy is just going to score.

8 in a row against the Flyers, here’s hoping they beat the Penguins for us in the playoffs.

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Been on vacation, and I just got home and I’m pretty sure I have a bad case of the flu. Or possibly some intense allergies. Either way, I’m not able to do writeups from the Montreal game or the Bruins game. Happy to see the Rangers are 1 pt away from clinching first place though.

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I have mixed feelings on this game. On one hand, the Rangers played a dominant final thirty minutes to the game tonight. They controlled the puck, they potted 4 goals, and they manhandled one of the best home teams in the NHL. On the other hand, they played a stupid, lazy, undisciplined, foolish game for the first 30 minutes that put them in the situation where they HAD to play that kind of a dominating game to finish it off.

So, how does one examine this game? I think you take the game with a grain of salt. You pretty much take it for what it was, the Rangers played a mediocre team, they came out flat, and they rallied to win it. It’s nice, but it’s annoying too. The Rangers are built on being able to play 60 minutes of hockey to win hockey games. Particularly against good teams, this is vitally important. The Rangers have had the benefit of a relatively soft schedule here, the past 2 games have been easy, and the next game against the Habs should be a very winnable game too. But the Rangers are going to need to play better, much better if they want to go far into the playoffs.

I know that’s not what people want to hear this late in the season, particularly coming off of a pretty good stretch here of late, but it’s true. This team is not playing their best hockey right now. They need to get better. Luckily, their magic number to clinch is only 7 points now. Any combination of 7 points won by the Rangers, or lost by the Pens, and the Rangers get 1st in the East. Keep it going boys.

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I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I just love the Minnesota Wild jerseys. Green isn’t my favorite color, but those jerseys, they are just…sweet.

Anyways, this was such a strange day for the Rangers. Looking at the Penguins schedule you had to figure tonight was their easiest game of the remaining season, and go figure the Pens lose to the Isles, and the Rangers just barely squeak by the Wild.

The funny thing is, the only thing that the Rangers struggled at tonight, was the thing they can generally be counted on to be great at, killing penalties. The Rangers are an outstanding PK team, tonight they weren’t. It’s rare, but it happens. The thing is, if you just take out the Rangers PK time, they were really good tonight. Minnesota plays hard, but the Rangers were able to withstand their surges by keeping the quality chances down (though they did bend a few times and Henrik was there) and they were able to pot 3 even strength goals to secure a big 2 points.

Why are the 2 points so big? Couple it with the Penguins loss tonight and the Rangers not only control their own destiny, but can actually afford to lose to the Pens in their head to head matchup and STILL control their own destiny, furthermore the Rangers can no longer lose the ROW tiebreaker to Pittsburgh, meaning the Pens will need to overtake the Rangers in points to secure #1, not just tie them (technically the Pens can tie the Rangers in ROW wins, but for that to happen, the Rangers would need to lose out and the Pens to win out, and if they did, they would overtake the Rangers in points anyway). What does all that mean? Basically, the Rangers need 9 more points to secure the top spot in the East no matter what Pittsburgh does. 9 out of a remaining 12 points and the Rangers secure the East. It’s a very doable total with the games the Rangers have left. They play Winnipeg, who is good at home, but still a very beatable team, Montreal, but at home, thankfully, Boston, who we have owned, Pittsburgh, who has owned us, Philly, who we have owned, and the Caps who are a possible first round matchup.

That’s a doable schedule right there. Only game that you’d have to say the Rangers would have trouble in is against the Pens. All the other games, while not being cakewalks, are definitely games the Rangers could, and should win.

Just win baby, just win.

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I gotta tell you, I think the Rangers probably played a worse game tonight than they did against Buffalo. Luckily, it wasn’t Ryan Miller between the pipes for the Leafs, and the Rangers were able to just barely gut out a win they probably didn’t deserve.

Look, we gotta admit something here. The Rangers are playing pretty poor hockey as of late. Nothing like the team we’ve seen for 95% of this season. They are still playing hard, but, they are also playing DUMB. DUMB hockey, when you don’t have the talent to make up for it, leads to mediocre results. The Rangers haven’t been winning much of late, alternating a few wins here with a loss or 2 there. It’s not good enough. If the Rangers want to actually win a round or 2, they are going to have to get their heads out of their asses and start getting back to what made them successful. So, what was that?

1)Hitting. This is where the Rangers set themselves apart. When this hit hard and often, they push the opposition into forcing plays or doing things too quickly for fear of getting hit. When the Rangers aren’t playing this game, they are what they are, a mediocre talented team with a great goalie who, believe it or not, is human, and sometimes goes into slumps (he picked a bad time for this one), which leads us to..

2)Goaltending. Henrik Lundqvist has to be better. A LOT better. A WHOLE LOT BETTER. There isn’t much else to say. Henrik has seemingly given up 3 or more goals every time you see him out there. It’s not like he’s giving up softies either, he’s just not making great save after great save like we’re used to seeing. The Rangers need to play better, for sure, but Henrik used to be what put us apart from everyone else. Right now, he’s ice cold, and that’s brought this team back down to earth.

3)Patience. The Rangers have been trying to force way too many things in the offensive zone. That’s fine and dandy when you have Crosby, Malkin, Neal, Kunitz, Staal, Letang, etc putting pucks in the net seemingly at will. But when you have Brad Richards, Marian Gaborik and a bunch of 3rd line type players, you have to be patient. Don’t force plays, let the plays come to you. Play the cycle game, wear out the opposition, block pucks, play defense, and score when you can. Winning a game 2-1 is just as good as winning it 5-4. Rangers used to win games with regularity when they scored 3, right now they are playing such poor defense that they are losing these kinds of games.

Fix those 3 things, and the Rangers will be a helluva lot better with regards to securing first place, than they are now.

Luckily though, the Rangers were able to put up 2 big points on the board. Big because Pittsburgh, amazingly, actually lost a game…in regulation :-O

I know, apparently they are having a holiday in Ottawa thanks to this accomplishment.

So, usually, a win where the Rangers play like crap doesn’t sit well with me because of the way I am wired. It’s not if you win or lose, it’s how you play the game. But, this one time, I’m going to ignore that, and take the 2 points. Sure, we played like crap, but, you know what, screw the Pens, I want first place.

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I always seem to mess up calling the Sabres (Sabers?) the wrong name, so screw it, I’ll just call them Buffalo. So, after spending a nice bit of time complementing John Mitchell, he goes and has himself a disaster of a game, essentially scoring both of Buffalos first 2 goals for them by himself. First he kicks a puck in, a really pretty kick mind you, and then he has just a horrendous turnover leading to Buffalo scoring their second goal. 2 shifts, 2 goals scored, both thanks to Mitchell…for the other team.

Ouch.

The Rangers just didn’t play a good game tonight, and when they had their chances, they just couldn’t bury their shots. Give credit to Buffalo for playing such a good defensive game, and give credit for Ryan Miller who made some great saves, got a bit of luck, and some great play by the players around him. The Rangers gave no such help to Henrik Lundqvist, making turnover after turnover, giving pucks away time and time again. It was just an all around clusterfrak.

Unluckily for the Rangers Mats Zucarello-Aasen probably saw his season end tonight by fracturing his wrist on a good shotblock. The kid has been very good in his time here so far this season, but wrist fractures tend to take a while to feel right, and you have to figure the Rangers will be looking long and hard at Chris Kreider should he become available to play in this lineup.

Shame, the kid was showing us something.

Luckily we have a quick turnaround, right back at it tomorrow!

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Ryan Callahan had a pretty damn awesome birthday. The guy scored the game winning, overtime goal. He made a diving all-out-effort play to block a shot, and played his usual never say die, all hustle, guts, effort type game.

But Henrik Lundqvist was better.

Let’s face it, Henrik gave up a soft goal against Zetterberg. It was a dipping whiff of a shot that Henrik should have stopped. Usually I would kill our goalie for giving up a craptastic goal like that. Thankfully though, Henrik was spectacular after that. Always in position, making countless superb saves, keeping the Rangers in a game where they just couldn’t buy a goal despite having countless glorious scoring chances themselves. This game was a little too much track-meet for my liking. The Rangers didn’t hit at all, and it showed in time of possession as the Wings were able to control the play a lot more than the injury depleted team should have been able to. Still though, the Rangers got 2 gigantic points tonight, winning against a team that they haven’t beaten since seemingly the NHL came into existence.

Give a lot of credit to the play of Marc Staal. The former all-star defenseman seemingly turned scapegoat anytime something goes wrong, played an outstanding game on the ice. He was easily the best defenseman on the Rangers, and probably the best defenseman on the ice for either team. He broke up a key 2 on 1 chance for the Wings, and played a lot more like the Staal of last year, easily stripping pucks from forwards and transitioning the plays up to the forwards with ease. The Rangers will need Staal to play more like this as the season goes on, we all know Torts likes to shorten the bench as the games get more important. We will be a lot better off if THIS Staal can play 25-30 minutes a night. Especially paired with Del Zotto who brings a lot of offensive game to this team, as he assisted on the game winning goal, and had a few great setups that weren’t buried. Del Zotto and Staal has a nice ring to it, dontcha think?

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