The Rangers meet the Flyers on Friday with a chance to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series. Philly will be amped up as they look to even the series in front of their home crowd, knowing that if they do lose, in order to win the four games needed, they would have to beat NY twice at MSG. While the Flyers did win there Sunday, it was their first victory in 10 chances on Rangers' home ice, so having to win two more in a row there is a daunting task.
Five keys or things to look for from me:
1) Maintaining discipline. Philly came in the most penalized team in the league at 14.4 minutes per contest while the Rangers finished ninth amongst the least penalized at around 10 per contest. To date, that pattern has continued, with Philly receiving 16 penalties to the Rangers nine. Unfortunately, six of those nine penalties occurred in Game 3, leaving them shorthanded for 7:16 in the contest, but fine penalty-killing, supported by shot-blocking, was a big reason why they won the game. Moving forward, the Rangers must be even smarter about not taking the bait and retaliating, walking away when it's prudent.
Coach Alain Vigneault echoed that thought Thursday, which was mentioned by several other Rangers.
“Playoff hockey is a very emotional time. Discipline is a very big part of any team’s plan. Especially in this series for us, we have to play whistle-to-whistle. We can’t get into those scrums after the whistles. We’ve done a really good job of that so far, and we need to continue to do that.…
In addition, if they are penalized, expect Philly to change their style of how they play on the PP. Look for Philly to have more and quicker puck and player movement whole also faking shots to create angles, in order to try and minimize the Rangers' prowess for blocking shots. How ironic is it that before the series, we spoke about how Philly was much more proficient in blocking shots this year than NY and now the focus is back to where it was in 2011-12. To counter the Philly changes, it gets back to discipline. Being disciplined in your lane on the PK, making sure your stick is on the ice and if you have to move positions, slide with your stick down to take up as much space as possible.
2) Adjust to the switch to Steve Mason. Bill Meltzer in his fine Flyers' preview spelled out what NY is likely to do differently. "With (Ray) Emery, the clear cut game plan whenever possible was to get him to move laterally....Playing against Mason, the Rangers will probably generate more rebounds in the slot and perhaps try and test the goaltender high to the blocker side. New York also has to make adjustments on their dump-ins because of Mason's puckhandling prowess." In addition, Mason is a left-handed catching goalie, which is different than Emery, so that is something else the Rangers have to adjust to for Game 4.
Early on, I think New York will stick to what they did in Games 1-3 and see how Mason handles the puck. Is he rusty after not playing for a bit and only seeing a few minutes in Game 3? Maybe they can get an early goal until he settles in. Then look for New York to get more pucks on net and traffic in front, making Mason a bit uncomfortable as he tries to settle in and find his footing.
3) Containing the Giroux line. Claude Giroux has had a difficult first three games, with just two shots on a net and a few assists. The Rangers started the series by matching Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi against that line, but with McD still getting his sea-legs and timing after missing the last five games of the season with his shoulder injury, New York started matching up Marc Staal and Anton Stralman against that line.
Giroux did what captains do, basically saying they would definitely win Game 4, adding more pressure on him to produce and perform. He is too good to be shut down all series, so you know eventually, he will breakthrough. When he does, the key is to make sure the Lecavalier - who now is on the second line with Schenn and Simmonds - and Couturier lines don't also have big games or do enough to beat you. If Giroux does score, okay, make sure no one else beats you, thereby minimizing the impact. Because, if he does get off the schneid, the crowd and the rest of the Flyers will gain momentum from that. The key them becomes to minimize the impact. By blunting the rest of the lineup, that momentum gained is contained.
4) A hot Staal. As mentioned above, Staal has been critical to the Rangers success this series to date, taking a lot of the pressure off the top D pairing. When Staal is on, as he has been much of the year, instead of two shut-down d-men, you now have three. Plus, paired with Stralman, they know when to pinch and when to hang back, so they are not beaten either on an off-man rush or breakaway.
The importance of a healthy and productive Staal can't be overstated. Larry Brooks wrote about it as well today and it's something we have discussed a lot the past several weeks of the year. In addition, I know all of us want him locked up long-term, since his contract expires at the end of next year. While I am loathe to discuss the future while the playoffs are going on, the quote below makes me less worried he will bolt to join his brothers in Carolina.
“My brothers are green with envy at my situation right now,… Marc said of Eric and Jordan, whose Carolina team missed the playoffs for the second straight season. “I get to come to the rink every day. I’m lucky to be here.…
5) Just win. It doesn't matter if it's pretty or ugly, get a win. We have so far in the playoffs, especially in the East, that home-ice matters little. Out West, it's been a bit more of a factor, with the home team winning most games. The Rangers have a very difficult task at hand. They will be facing a desperate and motivated team who do not want to go down 3-1, as that could mean today would be their last game at home. Each game has seen momentum shifts and as we have also seen in the playoffs, the two-goal lead is the kiss of death. We also know how the Rangers have struggled the past few seasons in terms of taking a two-goal lead, as was discussed before Game 2/ Throw all that out the window, just find a way to get the win.
Line Combinations:
Rangers:
Forwards: 61 Rick Nash - 21 Derek Stepan - 26 Martin St. Louis 67 Benoit Pouliot - 16 Derick Brassard - 36 Mats Zuccarello 62 Carl Hagelin - 19 Brad Richards - 13 Daniel Carcillo 12 Jesper Fast 22 Brian Boyle - 28 Dominic Moore - 15 Derek Dorsett
Extras: Jesper Fast (healthy, played games 1 and 2 but replaced by Carcillo in Game 3), JT Miller (could possibly get a look sometime during the series) and Chris Kreider (recovering from left hand injury; still can't stickhandle with that hand and likely out all of this round and part of the next).
Defense 27 Ryan McDonagh - 5 Dan Girardi 18 Marc Staal - 6 Anton Stralman 17 John Moore - 8 Kevin Klein
Extras: Raphael Diaz (a heck of a lot better than having to dress Roman Hamrlik) and Justin Falk.
Goaltending 30 Henrik Lundqvist 33 Cam Talbot
Flyers
Forwards 19 Scott Hartnell - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek 10 Brayden Schenn - 40 Vincent Lecavalier - 17 Wayne Simmonds 24 Matt Read - 14 Sean Couturier - 42 Jason Akeson 36 Zac Rinaldo - 12 Michael Raffl - 18 Adam Hall
Healthy Scratches - Tye McGinn, Jay Rosehill, Chris VandeVelde
Defense 44 Kimmo Timonen - 5 Braydon Coburn 8 Nicklas Grossmann - 32 Mark Streit 47 Andrew MacDonald - 22 Luke Schenn
Healthy Scratches - Erik Gustafsson, Hal Gill (though Gill might get in for Grossman)
Goaltenders Steve Mason Ray Emery
Healthy Scratch - Cal Heeter
Schedule
No. 3 Flyers vs. No. 2 Rangers (Metro Division) first-round scheduele Game 1: Rangers 4 Flyers 1, Thurs., April 17 Game 2: Flyers 4 Rangers 2, Sun., April 20 Game 3: Rangers 4 Flyers 1, Tue., April 22 Game 4: Rangers at Flyers, Fri., April 25 at 7 p.m. (CSN, TSN) Game 5*: Flyers at Rangers, Sun., April 27 at 12 p.m. (NBC, CSN) Game 6*: Rangers at Flyers, Tue., April 29 at TBD Game 7*: Flyers at Rangers, Thurs., April 30 at TBD
Get the win and sent it back to MSG on Sunday with a shot to clinch the series and advance.