The Rangers have a chance tonight at Madison Square Garden to close out the first round playoff matchup against the Penguins. By virtue of their 2-1 overtime victory on Wednesday, the Rangers hold a commanding three games to one lead. History in general may be on the Rangers side, as the franchise is 13-1 in best-of-seven series when holding a 3-1 series lead, though we all remember quite well when and why that series loss occurred. Pittsburgh looks to send the series back to the Consol Energy Center for Game Six on Sunday afternoon.
The Rangers know exactly what Pittsburgh is facing as they were in a similar situation last year. By having lived in the same situation, the Rangers know exactly what it takes to come back from that type of deficit. Plus, they realize that they are not at the top of their game, meaning there is or shouldn't be any false bravado or thoughts that this will be an easy game. The following quote sums it up well: "We’re not playing our best right now,… Derick Brassard said, “so we can’t be too comfortable.… The players know quite well the task at hand. “We know they’re going to throw everything at us, it’s their last chance,… Henrik Lundqvist said. “For us, it’s obviously an opportunity to end the series, and it’s going to be a challenge. We have to be ready for a great test.…
We saw the past few days what can happen with teams facing elimination. Anaheim was able to get a few goals in the third to eliminate Winnipeg. Yesterday, both Vancouver and Nashville were facing elimination. Each one of them came up with big efforts to secure a victory and send their series to a game six. The main difference with those two contests is that each of the team's facing elimination were playing at home, for Pittsburgh, they will need to do it on the road. But we saw last year that that is not necessarily an impediment to sending a series forward. In addition, as we saw in the Tampa Bay game, a slight bobble or loss of focus and a commanding lead can easily dissipate and lead to a loss.
The Rangers and especially the coaching staff have high standards. When those standards aren't met, the coaching staff, especially AV, will let the players know about it. That's what happened between the first and second periods Wednesday. The players knew that hadn't played well, but AV made that readily apparent in taking them to task. To a man, they responded, which shouldn't have been that surprising as they have done so all season.
We all would love if the Rangers got a few goals early and made the game an easy contest. But as we have seen so far that is unlikely to occur. I expect Pittsburgh to put forth their best effort in terms of heart and determination, even above and beyond what they've shown so far. The Rangers will have to match and hopefully exceed that level of intensity and do at least just enough to earn a victory and send them to the next round.
At this point, talking strategy seems kind of foolish. New York knows what the Penguins like to do and Pittsburgh knows what the Rangers like to do. For New York, they need to find a way to at least periodically use the stretch pass, like they did in a few of their victories in order to free up the neutral zone. Pittsburgh is going to attempt to clog the neutral zone and make the game a bit more of a slogfest, to cover up some of their deficiencies, especially on the blue line.
The mantra in the postseason is always survive and advance. Pretty losses mean nothing, ugly victories can mean everything. For tonight, the goal is to find a way to get another victory, be a pretty or ugly, and advance to the next round.
I will be back either late Saturday night or Sunday AM with either a series recap and look forward blog (optimal) or a Game 6 preview (less than optimal).