The Rangers and Capitals play Game 3 at the Verizon Center on Monday evening. Washington pulled out a win in Game 1 on a Joel Ward with 1.3 seconds to go. New York evened the series Saturday with a hard-fought 3-2 victory, holding off a furious rush in the last 100 seconds (sorry, had to channel my inner Doc Emrick there)
If you love stats, this blog is for you as a raft of them has been mentioned in the papers etc. lately. Rick Carpinello's column had a host of relevant statistics, taken from the Rangers' press notes. In addition, Sirius XM's Twitter feed has weighed in as well. Take that as gospel or with a grain of salt, but I thought they were interesting.
In the past four playoff springs, Lundqvist is 18-10 with a 1.79 goals-against average, a .936 save percentage and four shutouts in games following a Rangers lossAccording to Elias Sports Bureau, the Rangers have now played an NHL record nine consecutive one-goal playoff games, and 14 of their last 16 playoff games have been decided by a single goal
The Rangers have won an NHL-best 30 of 43 road games this season (including both games in Washington and Games 3 and 4 in the playoffs against Pittsburgh), and have won 11 consecutive Game 3s on the road since 1992. They are 14-3 in the last 17 series in which they won Game 3. And they are 5-1 in the last six series in which they split the first two games.
New York has scored 20 goals in 14 playoff games at the Verizon Center and Washington is 10-4 in those contests.
Alexander Ovechkin has 22 points in 28 playoff games against New York, including three in two games this post-season.
For both teams, the lines remain the same. New York made their switch Saturday, moving Fast up and Miller down a line while swapping Klein and Boyle. For Washington, there was some speculation that Tim Gleason might be scratched due to a minor injury, but he will be in the bottom duo again.
Rick Nash, Derick Brassard, Marty St. Louis Chris Kreider, Derek Stepan, Jesper Fast Carl Hagelin, Kevin Hayes, JT Miller Tanner Glass, Dominic Moore, James Sheppard
Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi Marc Staal and Kevin Klein Keith Yandle and Dan Boyle
Keys:
For New York, the key as it has been all series is stopping Ovechkin. So far, while they haven't done a bad job on him, we see just how dangerous he is, moving power, speed and skill. Part of that key is all hands on deck to mark Ovechkin. With Washington having the last change, I expect coach Barry Trotz to try and get Ovi's line on against Yandle and Boyle as much as possible. Pat Leonard wrote what we have said for a while related to Boyle and his struggles, but AV has shown no inclination to replace him with Matt Hunwick. the only way that might happen if there was a series of egregious errors, but of that does occur, we likely will be looking at a 2-1 deficit. So it's a choose your poison, have Boyle play poorly enough requiring replacement but deal with a series deficit, I know which one I prefer.
Trotz indicated that the Rangers have made their adjustments the other day in terms of lineup and matchups and now they likely will do the same. With the lines and pairings expected to be the same, the difference will probably be who is on the ice against whom. As noted above, Trotz will try and get Ovi on against the Rangers' bottom pairing. In addition, he may try and match up that line against the Blueshirts' fourth line rather than having top line go against top line.
The power play will again be key. My comments yesterday on the officiating were more so consistency in general than complaining about a call. There has been a disparity between the two sides in terms of man-advantage, though don't really believe that there shouldn't be seeing how the two games have gone. Washington is extremely dangerous on the PP, so staying out of the box again in paramount. For the Rangers, the tweak made before the series to have NSh in front paid dividends on Boyle's goal. AV said Monday that Nash and Kreider have the "balls" to go in front of the net on the PP, I really don't think I need to add any more to that.
In other news, GM Glen Sather hasn't yet given permission for Jeff Gorton to interview for the open Bruins GM job. Despite that, word came out yesterday that Gorton is likely a finalist for the role. If Sather really to keep him, then he should tell Gorton he is the successor, as I noted last week.
BU goalie Matt O'Connor has yet to make a final decision on where he will sign. Per Louis Jean of TVA, O'Connor wants to go somewhere where he can learn from a goalie coach who can take his game to the next level. O'Connor is looking at Ottawa Vancouver, Edmonton and the Ranges, though Edmonton may not be a finalist. Selfishly, we think New York would be the best option given the overall presence of Benoit Allaire. However, the cap has to be a major consideration, especially with the number of RFAs to be re-signed and less than originally expected rise in the cap next year.
A big Game 3 tonight at the Verizon Center. The Rangers have to weather an early storm, not locus at any moment throughout and raise their level of play over Games 1 and 2. Even though, this will be a very difficult game to win, but if they do, home-ice advantage will be regained.