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Game 78: NYR-COL, Rangers Look to End West Coast Road Trip With Victory |
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The Rangers can put themselves on the precipice of making the playoffs with a win tonight against Colorado. As I wrote yesterday, the magic number to clinch a playoff berth is three because the Capitals (81 points, six games left) are the only team that can knock the Rangers out of the playoffs. The Caps’ maximum potential finish is 93 points, but the Rangers already have 90 and own the tiebreaker, so three points either gained by the Rangers or lost by Washington clinches a postseason berth. A win tonight will leave the Blueshirts one point away and how ironic would it be if the Devils clinch that berth for the Rangers with a win against the Capitals tomorrow?
New York finishes up their four-game West Coast against a very tough Avalanche squad. The Rangers are 2-1 in the first three games of that trip but face their most difficult opponent on that swing tonight. Colorado is 6-3-1 in their last 10, having won four in a row and sit three points ahead of Chicago in second place in the Central Division, seven points behind St. Louis for first with seven games remaining. Coach Patrick Roy has done a phenomenal job with this team all season. Semyon Varlamov has been a brick wall between the pipes, leading the league with 38 wins. Offensively, even though Matt Duchene is out the next 4-to-6 weeks with a knee injury suffered the other day, Colorado still has lots of weapon, including Gabriel Landeskog, who notched the game-winner the other night, Paul Stastny, Ryan O'Reilly and possible Rookie of the Year, Nathan MacKinnon. On D, the biggest name is likely Erik Johnson, but this is a situation where the sum of the parts is greater than the individual whole, since none of their D stand out. That said, lately, it's been Tyson Barrie and Nick Holden leading the blueliners.
The Rangers will likely be without one of their leaders, as Ryan McDonagh, who averages 24:49 ice time each game, including 2:52 short-handed and 2:53 on the power play, is expected to miss this contest with his left shoulder injury. That injury occurred due to an Alexandre Burrows check with 43.8 seconds remaining Tuesday while Mack Truck was already engaged with Zack Kassian. The league decided that no hearing or additional penalty was necessary, and given how we couldn't determine if it was a dirty hit or not, it's no surprise the league made that decision, The Rangers, depending on who you read or listen to, may have classified McDonagh as out indefinitely but no structural damage was found in the shoulder. It may come down a pain management and range of movement question, though that also is unknown. In my view, with the playoffs a pretty good bet, erring on the side of caution is prudent here, even if there is no structural damage and I would sit McDonagh out tonight, even though he traveled with the team to Denver from Vancouver.
There are not that many available options for New York to fill in for McDonagh, and I won't use the word replacement, because whoever is in for him is not replacing McDonagh at that same level as our Norris Trophy candidate. That said, the expectation is that Marc Staal will move up from the second pair to take McDonagh’s spot on the left side of the first pair with Dan Girardi, reuniting the duo who played together until Staal was sidelined with his concussion in 2011-12 John Moore, who has missed the last six games recovering from the concussion he sustained on Mar. 21 in Columbus, will rejoin the lineup and likely will skate on the second pair with Anton Stralman. Kevin Klein and Raphael Diaz should remain intact as the third tandem on defense. The only other possibility is having Moore on the third line and Diaz on the second, but given the chemistry shown by Klein and Diaz, it's likely better to leave those two together rather the shuffling all three pairs.
Offensively, the team is still without Chris Kreider, following his hand to repair his left hand injury suffered March 21 against Columbus. Rather than having JT Miller sit on the bench, the team opted to give him more Amtrak miles by sending him back to Hartford, where at least he can play three games before they possibly consider him for another promotion and seat in the press box. I would love to think that this means the team is comfortable with their 12 forwards and believe Kreider will be back when the playoffs start on April 16 or 17, but as we don't know what the injury is or the surgery done, that may be a bit of a pipe dream or wishful thinking.
The lines tonight should be the same that were used against Vancouver.
Carl Hagelin-Derek Stepan-Rick Nash
Brad Richards-Dominic Moore-Martin St. Louis
Benoit Pouliot-Derick Brassard-Mats Zuccarello
Dan Carcillo-Brian Boyle-Derek Dorsett
The Playoff Race:
Starting with 12 games to go, scoreboard watching became the sport inside of the sport. As of March 27, the Rangers sit second in the division, 42-29-4 with 88 points. When I do a recap or game preview blog, I will include this at the bottom of the blog. However, on non-game/recap days, I will run this daily since this is a huge topic of conversation and a large component of our focus.
Wednesday, Ottawa saw their playoff hopes take a hit with their 2-1 loss to the Islanders while the dynamic duo, Gustav Nyqvist and Tomas Tatar, carried the Red Wings again in their 3-2 win over the Bruins. Today, the big game is Columbus-Philly. A Rangers win and Philly loss would mean that if the Rangers win out, regardless of what Philly does, New York will finish second in the division. In addition, a win would keep the Rangers seven ahead of Columbus, though the Blue Jackets would have six games left and two in hand. Other games, all of which have a milder impact, mainly on playoff positioning are Dal-Car, Bos-Tor and Cgy-TB.
Division:
Philly - lost 1-0 in a shootout to St. Louis on 4/1, their second straight shootout loss. 6-2-2 last 10, two games in hand on and three points behind the Rangers in third place in division. (played 38 games at home, 37 on road, three left at home, four on road, those are Columbus, @Bos, Buff, @Fla, @TB, @Pitt, Canes)
Columbus - lost 3-2 in overtime to Colorado on 4/1, 4-4-2 in last 10, two games in hand, fourth in the division and seven points behind the Rangers. Second Wild Card. (played 38 games at home, 37 on road, three left at home, four on road, Pitt, @Canes, @Flyers, Chicago, Isles, Phoenix, @TB, @Fla)
Washington - lost 5-0 to Dallas on /1, 4-3-3 last 10, one game in hand, fifth in division and nine points behind NY. Two points behind second wild card but Columbus has one game in hand. (played 39 games at home, 37 on road, two left at home, four on road, Dallas, @NJ, @Isles, @St.L, @Canes, Chi, TB)
New Jersey - won 6-3 over Florida on 3/31, 4-4-2 last 10, one game in hand, nine points behind NY. Three points behind second wild card but Columbus has one game in hand. (played 37 games at home, 39 on road, four left at home, two on road, Caps, @Canes, Flames, @Ott, isles, Bos) (will drop off with next loss or two)
Carolina - lost 2-1 to Ottawa in a shootout on 3-31, 5-4-1 last 10, one game in hand, 13 points behind NY, seven behind last wild card spot. (played 38 games at home, 37 on road, three left at home, four on road, @Pit, Dal, NJ, @NYR, Was, @Det, @Phi) (likely to drop off list with next loss)
Conference (teams within 10 either way, as Boston has a lock of Atlantic division, with second, third and wild cards up for grabs)
Montreal - third in Atlantic, lost 3-1 to Tampa on 4/1, ending a streak of five straight wins, 8-2-0 last 10, no games in hand and three points up on Rangers. (played 38 games at home, 39 on road, three left at home, two on road, @Ott, Det, @Chi, Isles, Rangers)
Tampa Bay - second in Atlantic, beat Montreal 3-1 on 4/1, 7-1-2 last 10, one game in hand and three points up on Rangers. (played 36 games at home, 40 on road, five left at home, one on road, Flames, Dallas, Tor, Flyers, Columbus, @Caps)
Detroit - fourth place in Atlantic, beat Boston 3-2 on 4/2, their third win in a row, 6-3-1 in last 10, have played one more game than Toronto, one game in hand and four points behind the Rangers. First Wild Card. (played 39 games at home, 37 on road, two left at home, four on road, Buff, @Mont, @Buff, @Pitt, Canes, @St.L)
Toronto - fifth place in Atlantic, won 3-2 over Calgary on 4/1, 2-8-0 last 10, same number of games and eight points behind the Rangers. One point behind Columbus for second wild card, but Blue Jackets have two games in hand (played 39 games at home, 38 on road, two left at home, three on road, Bos, Jets, @TB, @Fla, @Ott)
Ottawa - sixth place in Atlantic, lost 201 to the Islanders on 4/2, ending a three-game win streak, 4-5-1 last 10, one game in hand, 12 points behind the Rangers and five behind last Wild Card spot. (played 38 games at home, 38 on road, three left at home, three on road). (likely to drop off with another loss or two, Mtl, @NYR, @NYI, NJ, Tor, @Pit)
Kristyn Repke, digital media coordinator for the Blue Jackets, put together a breakdown of schedule strength, opponents, etc for the six teams in East battling for four playoff spots as of Monday morning: http://t.co/fnl2eutCbs
Summary: Two huge wins over Columbus and New Jersey, followed by a gut-check win over Phoenix, solid team effort in victory over Philly, bad loss to Calgary, convincing rebound win over Edmonton and victory over Vancouver. The Rangers the past several seasons have been excellent down the stretch, to lock in a spot, they may need to do the same thus year. The team has one game remaining on their four-game West Coast road trip that is running from 3/28 to 4/3 with a contests against Colorado, who will be without Matt Duchene, though NY probably has Ryan McDonagh out. Remaining games overall are two on the road and three at home in general and coming out of the last four of the season. The Blueshirts play the Senators, Hurricanes and Sabres at the Garden on Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday, respectively, before the Apr. 12 finale in Montreal. The Rangers are going to get no help from others, so they will need to keep winning in order to make the post-seasons.
In order:
3/21- @ CMB - win 3-1
3/22 - @NJ - win 2-0
3/24 - Phx - win 4-3, OT
3/26 - Phi - win 3-1
3/28 - @Cgy - lost 4-3
3/30 - @Edm - won 5-0
4/1 - @Van - won 3-1
4/3 - @Col
4/5 - Ott
4/8 - Car
Also, separately, I will be out starting next Thursday as need surgery to repair a hernia and then have the first two days Passover on April 15 and 16. I am looking to see if anyone would like to write a blog while I am out. Please PM me and let me know so I can make sure we have robust and new coverage while I am out.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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