The Rangers head to Pittsburgh for Game 3 of their series against the Penguins. New York is tied 1-1 despite less than optimal play the first two contests, Saturday, the PP – for the second straight contest – and PK failed to get their jobs done contributing to the 4-3 lead.
New York has struggled gaining the neutral zone the first two games. Pittsburgh has done an excellent job preventing New York from using a big weapon, the stretch pass, to create space and take advantage of their speed. To counter that, quick passes from red line to blue line and then a soft dump in would enable the Rangers to possibly use their speed to forecheck and blunt what Pittsburgh is doing. In addition, as we saw on Derek Stepan’s goal, the fake by Ryan McDonagh created space enabling J.T. Miller to find room and then get it to Stepan down the wing with a free shot at the goalie.
We can talk tactically all we want, which I will do again later on the PP, but part of the problem is that Pittsburgh has played like the more desperate team. They clearly wanted it more than the Rangers did Saturday, getting to open spaces and creating room by physical play. New York has to match and exceed that effort tonight. As mentioned on the blog, maybe it’s a good thing they are ion the road, where it’s an us versus the world mentality. No one has their back but their teammates, which may help the mentality and attitude question and contributed to a franchise record 27 road wins this season.
The power play has been a major work-in-progress this year, last year, the year before that; you get the picture. With Keith Yandle sidelined this AM due to illness, coach Alain Vigneault shook up the combinations yet again. It remains to be seen if these groupings will stick and who Yandle might replace but here are the changes:
Ryan McDonagh and Hunwick with Rick Nash, Kevin Hayes and Mats Zuccarello up front while the other, four-forward unit was Dan Boyle and Derek Stepan on the points with Chris Kreider, Derick Brassard and Marty St. Louis up front
I would expect Yandle to replace Hunwick, but could see Hunwick replacing a struggling Boyle on the PP, though that is doubtful. In addition, this is where having Kevin Klein would help, as his ability to get a hard shot on net is what’s needed along with better player and puck movement. The PPG Saturday was a good representation of that – hard shot on net, rebound, crash net and convert. The first net would have Hayes in front and Nash on the half-boards, or vice versa, giving some options, while Kreider would be in front.
Klein, who admitted that he had regressed after pushing it too hard trying to come back from his fractured left arm, took place in his first practice since the March 11 today. He indicated that he is pretty close to 100% and I expect him to play Wednesday with who replaces possibly decided on their performance tonight. James Sheppard will once again be a healthy scratch along with defenseman Chris Summers, unless Yandle’s illness sidelines him at game time.
The 12 forward NY uses will be the same as the past two games. The one tweak is that we could see Miller and MSL swap spots, which could help the offense a bit and provide a little bit more of physical forward to go with Hayes and Hagelin. That could be useful with Pittsburgh having the last shift if Hayes gets caught out against Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin.
Adam Herman had a great blog on the poor utilization of Dominic Moore so far this series. It’s especially stark when you see how the fourth line with Moore was used last year against Crosby and Malkin compared to the ice time this year. AV should have been using that line a lot more against the top-two centers for Pittsburgh with a possible tweak of moving Hagelin down to double-shift when need be. In addition, this is why I wanted Sheppard in for maybe Jesper Fast but really Tanner Glass to go with Sheppard-Moore-Fast as a fourth pairing. Not as good as last year’s Boyle-Moore-Dorsett but one that could be used a lot more frequently against Pittsburgh’s primary offensive options.
For the Penguins, their lineup looks to be the same as well. Christian Ehrhoff did not skate this morning and coach Mike Johnston said Ehrhoff had “flatlined… in his recovery from his concussion and was not ready. Derrick Pouliot is also not ready, so it will be Taylor Chorney, who has played well, and Brian Dumoulin on the third d-pairing. If a change did occur, it would be up front, where Scott Wilson could be inserted for right wing Beau Bennett.
New York won Game 3 in Philly, Games 1, 5 and 7 in Pittsburgh and Games 1 and 2 in Montreal last year. They have shown they can be road warriors. New York needs to do it again, Be Road Warriors and get a 2-1 series lead.