I don’t think there was one person who covers hockey who felt the New York Rangers were going to advance to the Stanley Cup without goals from Martin St. Louis, a few more from Rick Nash, Dan Boyle and Keith Yandle. In the last two games they’ve gotten just that besides a tremendous performance from Henrik Lundqvist to tie up the series 2-2. Now what?
In previous year the Rangers wouldn’t get secondary scoring but their stars would mostly step, Nash aside offensively speaking. This year Kevin Hayes, Carl Hagelin, and Jesper Fast have kicked in. That’s kept the team alive but against the Tampa Bay Lightning but to beat them, without Mats Zuccarello who’s still out, means yet another step up and this time it’s on the blueline.
The Ranger win wasn’t pretty. There was a point in that game where it could have gone either way. The puck that went off Victor Hedman’s leg changed it. From a mental perspective Tampa was stunned. Ben Bishop was really upset.
Puck luck aside, next game will be another barn burner. At home the Rangers will get the last change and hopefully continue to stymie the “Triplets” line.
Game 5 is always, in my mind the most important in any series. The Rangers can’t and won’t drop this game. They will go status quo with the lineup but Alain Vigneault will certainly make in-game changes if he needs to. For the first time in a few games, Jon Cooper needs to change things up, and that doesn’t mean dressing 11 forwards again. I suspect he’ll start going back to 12 and trying to roll 4 lines again on the road. Expect Cooper to keep his team on lockdown. Especially after forward, Cedric Paquette showed off a lot of poolside selfies earlier in the day. Less than 50% on draws, a -2 with 12 PIMS qualified as a horrible game. I suspect he’ll be a lot more quiet on social media going forward.
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I expect MSG to be rockin’. I expect the Lightning will do quick shifts and will spring Hedman loose as much as possible since he’s been hard to handle this entire series. I would expect Steven Stamkos to go back to plastering everybody against the boards, something he abandoned last game (he recorded 1 hit, as compared to 7 in their Game 3 win).
One last observation, Ryan McDonagh and Kevin Klein really showed off their nasty side and Klein defended Lundqvist last when Brenden Morrow took a run at him. If they continue to show that snarl the Rangers could win this series in 6, but I still expect them to win in 7.
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