When the Rangers take the ice tonight at the Garden they will be standing at a colossal crossroads. Typically Game 4 is the pivotal game of the series and that is certainly the case this evening. A win gives the Rangers a commanding 3-1 lead and a chance in each of the next three games to put the Capitals away. A loss will mean that most likely this series will go until the bitter end and the Capitals will have the cards stacked in their favor in the way of both home ice advantage and momentum.
Monday night's affair quickly turned into a horror show for the Rangers and their fans. The Rangers came out attacking but it was short lived, instead it was the Capitals taking full advantage of the open ice. The Rangers' team for the most part could have just bought their tickets from stub hub, ordered an eight dollar hotdog and a sixteen dollar Amstel Light.
Perhaps they were distracted by the giant obnoxious ads behind the goaltenders. Yes we get it, IO Cable… 5 dollar foot longs. When do they want to borrow the giant RE/MAX blimp from the Nassau Coliseum?
After all was said a done the Rangers moped back to the locker room with a humiliating 4-0 loss. So what went wrong? Well, where to start?? Of course you may have noticed the perpetual power play clock for the Capitals. The Rangers seemed to let their frustrations get out of control and instead of trying to rally back they were stuck killing penalties.
On the other hand in their own six power play opportunities they came up with a big fat zero. This time it was the Washington penalty killers disrupting anything the Rangers tried to get going and the Rangers being stifled by the Capitals' goaltender. Sometimes you have just have to loathe irony.
Simeon Varlamov has now held the Rangers to just one single goal in 120 minutes of play time. It is due time this rookie net minder gets "corrected" and they finally cordially welcome him to NHL playoff hockey. Instead of a mere jab to the face, Sean Avery needs whack that puck past the young Russian then overly celebrate in front of the net. Nothing gets under players' skins like actually hitting them where it really hurts, the scoreboard.
John Tortorella has been here before; he has led a team to all 16 wins needed to obtain the end prize. He is fully aware that the winner of tonight's game is most likely going to be the team to move onto the second round. He certainly did not hide his displeasure at the results of Game 3. To sum up the gist of his statements, he thought the Rangers stunk on Monday.
So, will the Rangers be able to execute what it will take to reclaim this series? Or, has the sleeping giant woken up and the Rangers just don’t have the sheer talent needed to stop them? I don't know if I can buy that, the Rangers have been able to hang with some top tier teams throughout the season. Then again they've also completely dropped the ball against some pretty subpar teams. The Rangers who have has identity issues all season long will have to discover just who they are tonight. One thing is for sure, the Capitals will be coming on strong with more confidence and a whole lot of drive.
Could the Rangers who played the last three games of the regular season and the first two games of this series please make their way to the ice?
Send me an e-mail and STILL... two more Rangers' wins 
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