The Rangers come back Madison Square Garden on Wednesday for a Game 7 matchup against the Flyers. New York comes in off their worst performance of the playoffs, a 5-2 loss to Philadelphia which forced today's game seven match. Most of us expected when the series started that would be a game seven but none of us knew exactly how we would get here. Now we know, win one, lose one, win one, lose one, win one and lose one; an all too familiar pattern for us Rangers' fans.
There is no extra time to clear their slate after yesterday's debacle. The Rangers hopefully flipped the switch and cleared the mechanism on the ride up I-95 after the game and will be coming in tonight a hungry team willing to do whatever it takes to get the victory. New York is 5-0 at Madison Square Garden in Game Sevens, with Henrik Lundqvist 2-0 in such situations. Hopefully history repeats itself tonight.
Too many mistakes. Not enough intensity. Not enough of everything yesterday. The end result was a 5–2 loss to Philadelphia. The Flyers were the more aggressive team and it showed. After a solid first eight minutes of the game, one of the keys that we spoke about – staying out of the box – came back to haunt the Rangers in a major way. Benoit Pouliot took an absolutely unnecessary and stupid offensive zone penalty on Claude Giroux, and the end result, was that it was off to the races for Philadelphia.
The list of culprits from yesterday's defeat is long and very few get the benefit of the doubt after yesterday's loss. Obviously, Pouliot, but add in Dan Girardi, Ryan McDonagh, Rick Nash, Lundqvist, to name just a few. It's probably easier to go those who played well, since that will be a much smaller list, and I might have to really rack my brains to come with anyone who I thought played as really strong game.
The Block Ness Twins each were lousy. McDonagh, in general, hasn't had a good series. Maybe the shoulder is still hurt or he has to re-find his way after missing time due to the injury, but whatever the reason, he has struggled tremendously. Girardi, who had been the better of the two to date and actually been very strong, really had a poor game Tuesday. First, on the penalty kill, he tried a very ill-advised, cross-ice stretch pass that was picked off by Giroux. Philly then gained the offensive zone and tilted the ice the remainder of their power play, resulting in Simmonds' goal. The second goal also was due to a turnover and he then was there, but wasn't able to help stop Simmonds' second goal. In addition, on Simmonds' last goal, Girardi failed to get to the front of the net, notwithstanding the other forward in the slot, but he was positioned poorly, allowing a wide-open tap in.
I know many, including myself, believe there was a great deal of luck on the two goals. On the first, the first shot hit McDonagh's skate and rebounded right back to Simmonds with a wide-open net. On the second, the pass was shanked, which ended going through the d-man's legs to Simmonds, also for an empty net. Branch Rickey said, "luck is the residue of design." I am also a firm believer in you make your own breaks. The Flyers, especially Simmonds, based on his comments earlier Tuesday, came in with the mentality to be aggressive and create havoc and difficulty in front for Lundqvist. They did this, and as a result, were rewarded with the two goals.
Nash has been relatively invisible. If you want the big contract, then with that comes great responsibility. If you don't produce or at a minimum, aren't as engaged as you should be, you will rightly draw the criticism. If you're nursing an injury, too bad, everyone is this time of year. If you are afraid to get it and won't engage in the dirty areas, then hand your jersey in and give the Rangers the cap relief. I am not minimizing head injuries, but if you say you are healthy, then you need to plant your rear end in front of the net, or at least between the two faceoff dots on either side of the ice, and get to the scoring zones. Because right now, you are a $7.8 million penalty killer, who makes a play or two but nowhere near consistent enough. Game 7 defines careers, what happened the first six games or your first 20+ playoff games might be forgotten or glossed over a bit if you are a hero tonight. That needs to be Nash's mindset today. Or at least tell him he is playing Columbus, maybe that will help.
Lundqvist gave up four goals on 23 shots while Steve Mason allowed just two, both late. It's not as if Lundqvist was horrible, as he didn't have much chance on three of the four, but the third goal was the killer. A blown play in the offensive zone allowed Philly to get the puck to Erik Gustafsson, who was in for Hal Gill, coming out of the box. Lundqvist did the worst things possible, he hesitated and was indecisive, first charging the puck and then backing up. This opened the five-hole and boom, at a time where a key save could've kept the game close, it now was a blowout, when you consider how poorly NY was playing. Mason wasn't great early, allowing lots of rebounds, but NY didn't capitalize. He got better as the game went on, especially the glove hand, more on that in a bit.
Now that I have gotten most of the negatives out of the way, time to flip the switch and turn the page and focus on what can be done to win Game 7.
In case you needed some more motivation for Game 7:
Hoosiers:
What to do to win Game 7:
1) Re-jigger the Power Play. After Game 2, coach Craig Berube made a key changes to the Philly penalty kill, having them stand up at the blue line, restricting the Rangers' ability to gain the zone easily. If the Blueshirts have worked on how to beat this, it's not readily apparent, as the PP has been embarrassingly bad, going 0-for-5 Tuesday and now 0-for-their last-20. It's time to stop having Brad Richards carry the puck up ice and possibly off the point of the PP. In addition, try overloading through the neutral zone to gain the blue line, enabling a dump and chase with better numbers, or at least creating some havoc, to get Philly out of position. In addition, stop the drop pass and generate speed initially through the neutral zone or get the puck in, on net and crash, like Philly did. The cross-ice passes that worked in Game 1 were deue to quick decisions and player movement, that too has been lacking. If Philly overplaying that, lanes should be open to shoot on net.
2) We talked about the adjustments made by Coach Alain Vigneault in Game 3 starting Dan Carcillo and then in Game 3, turning to JT Miller. Each worked for a game, but had little impact on the resulting contest. Well, it's a one-game series now, so time for another tweak. In the past, when Vigneault was in Vancouver, one of the major criticisms about him was his inability to adjust on-the-fly, especially in game. In this series, as noted just above, that seems not to be a case. But the inability to make changes on the power play either by Vigneault or Arniel are all too apparent this series. So now, what to do? Miller was okay yesterday, but the Rangers need to add more grit and heart to the lineup for Game 7, so it wouldn't be surprising to see Carcillo in. Second, the PP, as noted above has been abysmal. New York needs better puck movement. First, I would add John Moore to the point. Second, I would consider going with Raphael Diaz, since he has shown he can move the puck, has a good shot from the point and Kevin Klein has been okay, nothing special, so don’t think NY loses - and may gain - on the switch.
3) Hank being Hank. Hank's numbers in general when leading a series - 8-14, 3.5 GAA and .872 SV% - along with on no rest this year, 1-3-0, .879 SV%, leave a lot to be desired. But look at what he did Game 7 in 2012 against Ottawa and Washington as well as Game 7 in 2013 against the Caps. New York needs that type of performance tonight and I think they get it.
4) Stepping up. Simmonds' laid down the gauntlet to himself and his team as to what type of play was needed and they provided it. The Rangers need similar. They need someone to be a bastard and make it difficult in front of Mason and the Philly goal. Play it legal of course, unlike Simmonds' after Zuccarello's late game - though we all admit, we would love him on our team and hate him in Philly - to make life tough on Mason. They had chances early due to lots of rebounds, but no one was either there or got to pucks in the dirty area. Maybe it will be Nash or Zucc or Carcillo - if in - or Brassard, who has been too invisible, to get in front and impact Mason's comfort zone. In addition, remember it's Mason and not Emery in net. Go short-side, not wide side, to the blocker and not the glove, which is where Nash, Stralman, etc. were stopped.
5) MSG Crowd. The Flyers remarked after the game how loud their crowd was and how it pumped them up. The Rangers need similar tonight. The crowd should be up. You tried to get home-ice in this round so that if it came to a Game 7, you had the last change and benefit or home crowd. The fans need to really make it a home ice advantage.
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 - 10 JT Miller 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), Daniel Carcillo (replaced Fast for the two games in Philly and then was replaced by Miller for Game 5, see my comments above) 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 (see my comments above) and Justin Falk.
Goaltending 30 Henrik Lundqvist 33 Cam Talbot
Flyers
Forwards 10 Brayden Schenn - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek 19 Scott Hartnell - 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 26 Erik Gustafsson - 32 Mark Streit 47 Andrew MacDonald - 22 Luke Schenn
Extras - Hal Gill (healthy, played game 5, benched for game 6 for Gustafsson), Nicklas Grossman (injured right knee Friday)
Goaltenders Steve Mason Ray Emery
Healthy Scratch - Cal Heeter
Schedule
No. 3 Flyers vs. No. 2 Rangers (Metro Division) first-round schedule 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: Flyers 2, Rangers 1 Fri., April 25 Game 5: Rangers 4 Flyers 2, Sun., April 27 Game 6: Flyers 5 Rangers 2, Tue., April 29 Game 7*: Flyers at Rangers, Wed., April 30 at 7PM (NBCSN, MSG)
Use whatever cliché you want here. Do or die. Win or go home. Game 7 is made for heroes, let's hope they are the ones in red-white-and-blue.
Let's Go Rangers!!!