You probably won't get much closer to being up 2-0 in a series while being down 2-0 in a series than the New York Rangers have come in the opening games of the Stanley Cup Finals.
Let's run down this a little bit.
The Kings have yet to lead a game
Both games have gone to overtime
The Rangers led by two goals in both affairs.
They led by two goals going into the third period of Game 2 on Saturday night as well.
The Kings, by all accounts, have played two of their more sloppy games in Games 1 and 2 and got away with it.
How concerning is all of this from a Rangers standpoint? To me it seems pretty detrimental, not form a situational standpoint but from a mental standpoint.
I have said time and time again, I don't feel like there is series momentum. IN MOST CASES. I feel like there is in game momentum, and there is out of game momentum. For the most the two do not compound. These guys are professionals, and most times they are pretty good at isolating game by game, period by period.
Here is one of those cases though where you say, "eesh, that has to sting." And the idea of letting missed opportunities go by the wayside could creep up. Let's say the Rangers get down early in Game 3, do you think they will be starting to think about Games 1 and 2 and saying, "Maybe this just isn't our year."
Thinking about missed opportunities is never a good way to approach an impending, and potentially series defining homestand, but the Rangers are staring at that square in the face. At the start of the series there was no talk about, "Why can't the Rangers hold a lead?" "Hank has now given up 9 goals in 2 games." "Where is Brad Richards??" (Okay, maybe some have been saying the last one.)
Now that's completely different. The Rangers had the "team of destiny" tag hung around their neck from the start of the series, now it is slowly starting to shift back into the hands of the pesky, never say die, Los Angeles Kings.
It is a difficult position to be in for the Rangers, but they need to look no further than the opposing team to find an example of a team that has been down and never out. Do they have the locker room and the leaders to emulate the cockroach-like nature of the LA Kings? We'll see.
Bottom line, this is not a series that is out of hands by any means. While Kings fans are elated at the nature of the first two victories and how they have come about, let's take a step back here for a second.
They held home ice. Simple as that. They did what was expected. I've said it before and I'll say it again: It's not a series until someone drops a game at home. As impressive as the victories were from the standpoint of winning when playing poorly, a 2-0 series lead is like a 2-0 game lead. It's dangerous.
From the Kings standpoint, you've seen it the entire playoffs, they aren't satisfied. As Greg Wyshyinski put it, the Kings are the most unhappy team two wins away from a Stanley Cup. The sheer amount of quotes from the Kings focusing on poor play, bad starts, sloppy defense, and "We can be better" variations is astounding. However, it is EXACTLY what they need to be telling themselves. This team doesn't miss a beat when it comes to the approach of the game.
There is never a question of, "What happened?", "Why did this happen?" from the Kings locker room.
That's why when I hear Joel Quenneville and Alain Vigneault say, "I don't know what happened" In some form or another, I know the Kings were getting into the heads of the opposing team in a manner. When I hear opposing coaches not being able to explain something that happened in a game involving their team losing...it just doesn't feel right.
So where do the Rangers go from here?
Forget it. Move on. Leave it behind. It's not about how you lost, you just lost. losing 7-0 and 5-4 in double OT are exactly the same.
I liked this quote from Henrik Lundqvist on Dan Rosen's article today on NHL.com
"You don't have a choice, you have to move on," Lundqvist said. "We go home now and you try to stay positive, believing in what we do in here. We did a lot of good things out there. It's come down to a couple plays that so far they're taking advantage of, a couple mistakes [in] the first two games."
I think that's a better approach than say...this quote from Brad Richards
...It is tough to give up two two-goal leads, tough one tonight right now. Two games with one shot and we can win and we have to win our two at home.
Focus less on the past transgressions, take the good and move forward.
Honestly though? I don't know if the Rangers have that in them. When a top player like Brad Richards is bringing up the Game 1 loss in the Game 2 post game scrum, I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Just my two cents, that's not what I would want to hear from one of my top centermen. He's human though. I understand.
The Kings are a malicious beast. Some of it is by style, some of it is by reputation, and some of it is just by plain old dumb luck and determination. They get down on you, give you hope, and then take it away. It's silly and it's a dangerous game to play from the Kings standpoint, but it has been effective on the overall mental state of their opponents on a regular basis. Then getting into the in game stuff, they hit you, they play hard physically for 60-minutes, and in the back of your mind you are always thinking, "They aren't out of this."
I'm sure every single one of the New York Rangers right now are thinking about the last two games. How could you not? The question is now, when they face the adversity that will inevitably face in the next 2 games 2-4 games how will they handle it? Where will they go? Will they rise to the occasion or will they just fall in line with the other opponents of the Kings who don't have any answers.
History repeating itself has been rampant thus far in the 2014 playoffs, at least for the Kings it has. They are trying to break one trend though...let's not go 7 again shall we? I picked 6 when the series started, starting to feel like I maybe should have gone with a smaller number. Still plenty of games to be played though.
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