Well it's over, it came down to one last game and the Rangers ended up on the wrong side of a 2-1 final score.
It is moments like this when I need to pry myself to my Laptop and write up something as my heart has sunken deep into my bowels, that I re-think why I do I always put myself through this. When the team you live and die for finally loses at the end of the season it's usually a quiet mourning you do. You sorrowfully pack away the jerseys, put your Rangers' cap under the hat pile and try to schedule other plans for the week. But for a blogger/writer you need to suck it up to write up something.
So I'm sitting here on the train typing away, listening to Junior Wells' "Tobacco Road" on my I-pod thinking of what could have been. Would the Rangers really had any prayer against the top seeded Bruins? Probably not but we all would have liked to find out.
So what went wrong last night? How did the Rangers end up packing up their bags and going home for the season? The Rangers came out like a rejuvenated team in the first two periods. For 40 minutes of hockey they played like we've been waiting to see all series long. They forechecked! They forced the Capitals to play in their own zone for the majority of those two periods. It was a beautiful thing to witness.
Sean Avery played like a man possessed, he would let himself get smashed, crosschecked, practically reduced to Ned Betty in the movie Deliverance, but he refused to give up the puck. It was Avery's work in the corners that allowed for the Rangers go-ahead goal in the first period. Unfortunately before the end of the first period the Capitals would strike back as Alexander Semin shot the puck at the net that deflected twice to get past Henrik Lundqvist.
The Rangers came back in the second period with more of the same; they worked the puck in the corners, attempted to cycle it to the front but were often forced to only the outside. However, all this work in the offensive zone meant that the Capitals were defending not attacking. Despite the Rangers' dominating the play they left the second period still tied at one.
This is where the game slipped away. The Rangers came out for the third period and the Capitals hit the gas pedal as the Rangers eased on the brakes. Since Tortorella took over, the Rangers had issues with fatigue in the third period after playing two up-tempo periods. The Capitals attack machine was in full gear and the Rangers could do nothing but defend.
It was a knuckleball laser shot from Sergei Fedorov that would sink the SS Rangers with just under five minutes to play in the third. The Rangers were unable to retaliate. They couldn't even take the opportunity to pull Lundqvist as Washington refused the Rangers entry into their zone.
And that folks, is how it all ended. The Rangers played their hearts out for two periods, one period too short. Perhaps if the Rangers could have scored for all their efforts in the second period things could have gone differently in the third; or maybe not.
You have to tip your hat to the Washington Capitals; they faced elimination for three straight games and pulled through. I wish them the best of luck for the rest of the tournament. I honestly thought the Rangers would have gone down in 5 games before this series started. When the Rangers jumped up to that infamous 3-1 lead, I got my hopes up. So in a way we can be proud that the Rangers made it a series and took the Capitals to the brink, but losing three straight like that just burns deep.
---
The Rangers will have to do some soul searching the next few months and shake out who stays and who goes. It's been absolute pleasure writing for this team throughout now two seasons. We laughed, we cried, we reached up the sky together and asked, "6.5 million dollars for Wade Redden, WHY?!?!"
I will have a new blog up eventually concerning both unrestricted and restricted free agents, stay tuned for that, maybe in a week or two after I finish binge eating to fill the void in my soul.
Thanks for reading all my blathering this season!
~Scott Gallof
Send me an
E-mail and a box of Kleenex.
Join the Discussion:
»