The Rangers lost to the San Jose Sharks last night in overtime, which was not on my bingo card. You can expect a team with no wins to go all in for a win but the Rangers basically handed them the game.

Even going down 1 goal in the first period, the Rangers dominated the period. The game felt within reach and that came true in the second period when Chytl and Panarin scored fantastic goals.

And then the third period started and the Rangers collapsed. 2 shots on goal. 2! How is that even possible? At least 8 completely missed the net. The Sharks’ penalty kill (their best stat so far this season) stopped the Rangers completely. And that’s been an issue for a while, if the power play doesn’t get points, it puts the Rangers and the back foot because their 5-on-5 scoring frequently isn’t enough to win a game outright. The amount of turnovers was absurd. There was a point when back-to-back passes went directly to the other team. They weren’t even looking for someone to pass to! Just huck it behind you and hope for the best. It was like David Quinn was coaching again, but he’s actually coaching the Sharks now.

Gallant was clearly annoyed at the post-game interview and you better believe the team is going to hear it. They can’t play like that, it’s embarrassing. Overtime was just a knife into the back the losing goal was so dumb. Columbus is on Sunday afternoon and they are another struggling team. I don’t know what got into the team last night but they better learn from it.

The New York Rangers are off to a strong start with the first week complete. 3-1 against good teams, the best being opening night against Tampa. A dominant 3-1 win. The all-stars, Zibanejad, Panarin, Kreider, Fox are all off to strong starts. It usually takes Zibanejad and Panarin time to get going at the start of a season but they have flown out of the gate this week. Panarin has 10 points and Zibanejad has 8.

The powerplay is just as dangerous as last season which is fantastic. Vincent Trocheck is starting to become comfortable with Coach Gallant’s system and gelling with his linemates (he centers the 2nd line and is on powerplay 1) . Chytl, Kakko, and Lafreniere have all done work over the summer and it shows. They are way more present on every shift they play. Way more aggressive, putting their newly achieved strength and weight to use. Kakko is getting a crack on the first line and Lafreniere on the second, with Chytl still centering the 3rd. All three are now on powerplay 2. This means Gallant has a lot of confidence in them. With the other additions made to patch up the weak spots on defense and face-offs, things are looking really bright. If the “kid line” keeps progressing the way they are, all 3 guys could have breakout years. Each of them could hit 15-20 and even more assists, which would greatly boost the team’s competitive level. Last season’s playoffs were a big learning experience for everyone.

Right now my only concern is that the defense can get off their game way too frequently. It’s leaving teams to too many high-chance shots that even Shesterkin can’t stop (new backup Halak was good in his first starting game, despite it being a loss. The guys in front of him made massive mistakes). I think Shesterkin’s save percentage is lower than .900 now, which is concerning. The high-scoring capabilities (mostly the dominant PP and PK) have won them games despite giving up an average of 3 goals a game. That’s not sustainable so defense needs to be worked on. The next 2 games should be easy wins so this ice time should be invaluable to keep improving.

The Colorado Avalanche!

A wild six game series came to a close last night in Tampa Bay. Tampa gave it their all, rallying twice after losing the first two games in a row. Each team won a blowout game, and the rest were 1 goal victories, two of them OT winners for Colorado. The two best teams in the sport met in the finals and the best team won.

Colorado was able to do just enough to keep Tampa at bay in this series. The back-to-back wins in games 1 and 2 were crucial and their defense came through to seal the deal after letting it slip away in game 5. Keeping Tampa Bay to 4 shots on goal in the 3rd period of an elimination game in Tampa is a heroic level of achievement.

There were a ton of missed penalties in the series due to the officiating getting self-conscious about not calling some worthwhile, although questionably impactful plays, like too many men on the ice. So they largely opted to “let them play”, especially in last night’s game. Which of course, led to some serious goon moves which were nothing short of dangerous. Tampa Bay’s Patrick Maroon took a full-on golf swing to Josh Manson’s leg right after Colorado took the lead. If Manson didn’t see it coming to block the hit with his stick (which broke) there is no telling what kind of damage he would have done.

In the end, Tampa Bay was denied a third championship in a row, cutting them short of an official dynasty. They are now salty as hell. Maybe to the level of when St. Louis swept them in the first round in 2019. To their benefit, most of the roster is signed through next season so they should be able to get to the playoffs again with no problems. They’ll certainly have the motivation (and the goalie) to get back up right away.

Colorado is more up in the air with more pending contracts but it’s not out of the question that they’ll be fantastic again. The mind-boggling part is that Colorado came in last place in the league five seasons ago. That is an insane turnaround. It took the Rangers that long just to get back into the playoffs.

Tampa wins the game 2-1. Tampa wins the series 4-2.

Game 6 proved to be the same as the last three with the Rangers struggling to get any traction against Tampa’s defense. Coach Gallant made an odd call of taking Kakko out, putting an injured Strome in, and Dryden Hunt back in for the first time this season. He also mixed up the lines with little results. He put the old lines back together in the second period.

Tampa was faster all game and the Rangers’ passing felt very off leading to a lot of playing catch up. Steven Stamkos scored first in the second period, on a shot that I think caught Igor by surprise. It’s one he usually has no problems stopping. So the desperation came even greater at that point but Frank Vatrano answered the call in the final minutes of the 3rd period.

He scored on the Rangers’ second powerplay (Tampa went 0-1) right off the face-off in Tampa’s zone that Vasileskiy completely missed. The rush of success and hope came to a screeching halt just 21 seconds later. Stamkos, having been the one in the penalty box, made up for it on the next play. He got a nice pass right in the center of the ice on the rush and he made his shot about 3 feet away from Igor. He caught the puck in his glove but the velocity made the puck roll around his glove before he could close the mitt. He fell out in the exactly right place for it to hit the passing Stamkos’ leg and bounced into the net. Probably the worst goal to lose such a big game by. It happened in about a second and because the Rangers couldn’t score a 5-on-5 goal, there was little they could do. Pulling the goalie for 5 on 6 bore no fruit.

A depressing defeat, another game that felt like a robbery. Igor did his best and is the only reason this game wasn’t a 7-1 blowout. Exhausted and hurt from playing so much playoff hockey in the past 6 weeks the Rangers had no more to give.

The Rangers have more gaps to fill to come back stronger next season, but it was a hell of a season. Now it’s left to Colorado to stop Tampa from becoming a dynasty by keeping them from winning three Stanley Cups in a row. It should be a good series. Tampa’s biggest advantage is in net and they will be far and away the best team Colorado will play in the playoffs. It’ll be a challenge.

Tampa wins the game 3-1. Tampa takes the series lead 3-2.

This was another very close game that ended with a last-minute dagger to the heart. The good news was that the Rangers played much better, a repeat of Game 4 would have been horrific. This loss was more depressing.

Both goalies played as well as their growing legacies predict. There were few penalties (many did not get called) and neither team scored on the power play. Solid defensive play from both sides really. The Rangers had a solid first period in particular, outshooting Tampa 8-3. Tampa ended up with 2 or three shots on goal and more high danger shots.

Ryan Lindgren was the first to score in the second period from a weird angle right next to the boards to the right of Vasilevskiy. It looked like nothing when it happened but hitting that back of the net stunned Vasilevkiy and made the Garden erupt. But Tampa tied the game a few minutes later on a screen play, Shesterkin didn’t get a good look at the shot.

The third period was a nail biter, each team doing their best to stay out of the penalty box. It was like everyone knew the next goal would come as a surprise and would likely call the game. Tampa did it with 1:50 left on another screen play with a deflection. The second robbery from Tampa. I’m not sure what was worse, this game or Game 3.

So now we’re in the worst-case scenario with Tampa one game away from winning the series with a home game. The Rangers didn’t split Tampa’s back to back home games and couldn’t get that one extra goal to take the series lead. The Rangers had a few great chances but didn’t cash in. The most brutal being Strome missing a pass from Copp in front of a wide-open net. It’s those scenarios that make champions. It’s so rare to get an open net chance that when it happens, you have to score. Those opportunities evaded the Rangers and Tampa was able to pull it off.

The pressure couldn’t be higher. The Rangers have been in this spot (and actually worse) for most of the playoffs but this one feels like the biggest mountain to climb. Tampa has this experience and the momentum so the sides feel more tilted. The Rangers could win tomorrow to force Game 7 and they’re going to need to go all out to do it. I expect a very physical game as Tampa is going to want to break out early to depress the Rangers.

Tampa wins the game 4-1. Tampa ties the series 2-2.

Splitting the two games at Tampa did not happen. Even worse, the scoring is going in the wrong direction. Poor defense doomed the Rangers tonight.

Missing Ryan Strome, Chytil leaving the game halfway through and Goodrow playing injured also didn’t help. On the other side, Vasilevskiy continued to play strong and the stars of the team scored a goal in each period.

Tampa got two rebound goals, where the rebound landed right in front of a Tampa player, and the Rangers didn’t. That kind of luck is what helped the Rangers win Game 2. The goal in the second period was from a terrible middle of the ice dump in that was intercepted and turned into a breakaway chance in about 3 1/2 seconds. A dumb play that was stacked on top of a terrible defensive position that had huge gaps in coverage.

In this game, the Rangers’ only goal was from a power play (1/2 for the Rangers, 0/3 for Tampa). The special teams were the only highlight of the night, shutting out Tampa and keeping them from a shut-out game.

Just bad defense and sluggish play through the whole game. What I mention in the last post, that the Rangers looked tired, was true again. With the series tied, the board is now reset into a best of 3 series. The stats of the playoffs go back to the Rangers’ favor as they go back to play at MSG, but they have to play with a renewed drive and strategies to win again. If they don’t win tomorrow, the odds of Tampa winning in 6 at home is really high. They’ve dug deep for weeks now and they have to do it again. The question is if the team is healthy enough to make it happen.

Rangers lead series 2-0. Rangers win 3-2.

This win breaks Tampa’s win streak record of 17 rebound games after losing one game in the playoffs. The Rangers take a two-game lead in the series, the first time Tampa has lost two games in a row in the playoffs since being swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2019.

Tampa played better this game, as the final score shows. The biggest difference was Tampa’s penalty kill. where they shut down the Rangers all 4 times. Tampa scored on their only power play at the start of the game. Reaves was baited into retaliating at the face-off and the ref only gave him a penalty. Tampa quickly capitalized, but the Rangers responded and kept Tampa at bay for most of the game.

It was just a few minutes later when K’Andre Miller scored after his first shot was blocked (knocking down the defender). The rebound came right back to him and so he thought, “Hey, might as well try again.” He moved over a little bit and took a tremendous slapper that Vasilevskiy should have stopped. That was Vasilevskiy’s story again, letting in goals he should have stopped.

In the waning minutes of the first period, Kappo Kakko scores from a brilliant pass from Fox. Kakko stationed himself in Kreider’s favorite spot next to the left goal post and Vasilevskiy had no chance to stop the tip in.

The second period went scoreless and the Rangers did tremendous work frustrating Tampa. They tried everything to rattle the Rangers and the Rangers didn’t bite. Only that one penalty. While the Rangers didn’t score on their power plays, they kept Tampa back on their heels. That’s 8 minutes of a game where Tampa is at a disadvantage, which means the Rangers are in control. You can’t score if you don’t have possession of the puck.

Mika Zibanejad with one more sniper goal on Vasilevskiy, high blocker side, gave the Rangers a 2 goal cushion. Tampa pulled their goal early, around 3:40 left in the game, and scored with 2 minutes left. That last 2 minutes were almost complete mayhem. Absolute madness with all those men clustered in front of the net. I don’t know how Igor made the saves he did. He straight up robbed Stamkos with 37 seconds left. And that’s the difference: Shesterkin made the saves when Vasilevskiy didn’t.

The Kid Line continues to strut their stuff. This line is such a threat now it’s changed the dynamics of the team. Tampa cannot keep up or contain them. Adam Fox has 2 more assists this game. Miller is playing so well. His linemate Trouba is playing at his absolute best, which is so needed.

Now the series goes to Tampa for the next 2 games. It’s hard to believe Tampa will be swept, but it will be clutch to win one of these road games because the odds of ending the series at home in Game 5 are monumental.

Rangers lead 1-0. Score 6-2

Just about everything went the Rangers’ way last night, putting Tampa Bay on notice. A 6-2 win is shocking.

The question for Tampa coming into this game was what shape they would be in from having 9 days off. The clear disadvantage for the team turned out to be goaltender Vasilevskiy. He was out of his groove, missing some important shots. Igor Shesterkin, riding high from the last two games, was in the pocket. Now Vailevskiy wasn’t bad, I’d say there were 2 goals on him, the other 4 were incredibly well set up and placed shots that basically no one could have stopped.

Tampa’s best period was the first. The Rangers caught the first break by a mistake on defense and that put New York into the driver’s seat with confidence (the slap pass from Zibanejad to Kreider was ludicrous). But Tampa answered back quickly. A 1-1 game at the end of the first means nothing at this level, it’s anyone’s game. Both teams did play very well, the Rangers in particular because they came out of the gates flying, which they had to do. They frequently kept up with or out-skated Tampa, which is huge for a team that frequently and frustratingly starts games slowly.

The Rangers scored first in the second to take the lead once more and managed to hold on to that lead for longer than the first goal. This is where the game really felt like how everyone thought it would play out, extremely close with spurts of superiority from both teams. It would be a grueling 60 minutes that could go into overtime. But about halfway through the period, the narrative changed. The Rangers took control.

It was wild stuff from the Rangers. Igor legitimately kept them alive in the first period. He made some insane saves. He kept it tied when it could have been 3 or 4 to 1 in favor of Tampa. Then the whole team started firing on all cylinders. It didn’t matter what line was out there, they were giving Tampa no room to do what they wanted. The Rangers heavily outshot Tampa in the second and those shots on net turned into goals. Before long it was 4-2. That is a fantastic and needed buffer when playing Tampa. But Tampa could close that gap with the talent they have.

The start of the third period really ended the game. Panarin made a wrist shot that shocked everyone in the first 30 seconds. Three goals is a huge lead. Tampa looked deflated like they couldn’t believe what was happening. This hadn’t happened to them since the first game against Toronto 9 games ago. While they got more shots on goal than the Rangers in the final frame, the chances weren’t that great. Igor looked pretty casual through it.

There were so many impressive moments and tremendous plays that it’s hard to keep track of. The Ranger’s coaching staff did a tremendous job of coming up with a plan and relaying it to the players. The players executed for 60 minutes. Shooting, passing, checking, blocking, just about any mistake from one player was covered by a teammate. “The Kid Line” with Chytil, Lafreniere, and Kakko has come to life and added such depth to the team that whole new threats have emerged for Tampa to negotiate.

Tampa is a tremendous team who will make meaningful changes. They rarely make mistakes and when they do, they bounce back. It’s up to the Rangers to keep the same energy and determination in order to win again. Going up 2-0 would be massive.

Rangers tie the series 3-3

Rangers 5-2

Put simply, this game was determined by goaltending and Igor Shesterkin won. This game was easily Antii Raanta’s worst game in this series. It started out well enough for Carolina: fast paced, a lot of possession time and shots on goal. The Rangers would get their shots here and there, Carolina would take it back, a lot of tension as so much was riding on this game. If the Rangers lost, the season was over. Igor made two wild saves in those opening minutes, and right after one such glorious save Tyler Motte was able to mosey into Carolina’s zone and fired one straight on Raanta….and he didn’t stop it. It slipped under his arm much like what happened to Igor a few games ago. He didn’t close his arm fast enough and boom, one team is up in Game 6 at Madison Square Garden.

And the fans were all about it. MSG was bumping all night long. The Rangers maintained the lead for the entire game. Mika Zibanejad sniped Raanta on a powerplay after embarrassing three Carolina players to make it 2-0. The rest of the first period was frantic as Carolina fought back at every opportunity. In the second period, Carolina scored but so did Chytil, twice! After missing an open net on a 2-1 breakaway one-timer, which I thought would come back to haunt us, Chytil got a second chance and buried it. That got Raanta pulled, After Carolina answered back quickly to cut the lead down 3-1, Chytil made it 4-1 a minute and half later. A styling backhander over the right shoulder of the goalie. In the last half of the period, Carolina got a garbage goal to cut the lead down to half.

The third period was full of chances on both sides along with a whole lotta penalties. Special shout out to Tony DeAngelo for negating a Carolina power play by getting a stupid unsportsman-like penalty. At the 12:17 mark, the Rangers were on the power play when Panarin scored a long overdue goal. Through the legs of one defender and the goalie. This game wrapped up with the Rangers’ commanding three-goal lead.

Carolina outshot New York 39-25 but it made no difference to Igor. He locked that net down and got two assists. His teammates did the work in front of him to get those goals to make Carolina chase them instead of the other way around. Special teams also showed up with the Rangers going 2-5 and Carolina 0-3.

Now we’re back to square one. One game decides it all and it’s in Raleigh. The Hurricanes haven’t lost a playoff game yet this year. Can they go 8-0? That record has to end some time right? There’s no reason to think it won’t happen next. The big thing is that Barclay Goodrow came back to play in this game and he made a noticeable difference. The Rangers are now stronger. Igor is in the zone. That is huge. And now the big question: Can Raanta bounce back from this bad game? If he falters again and lets the Rangers take the lead first, that means Carolina can’t play their suffocating trap defense game to hold on to the lead. It’s a huge part of their game.

Both teams will be going all out and it’s going to be nerve-wracking.

Carolina leads the series 3-2

Carolina 3-1

This was basically a rerun of Game 1, which is not what we are looking for. A decent first period where the Hurricanes scored first but the Rangers quickly answered back to level the playing field. The first goal showed a problem though: a short-handed goal. This is the second one of the series the Rangers have given up. The Rangers did this to the Penguins so this is clearly another terrible break for the Rangers. For as good Jacob Trouba can be, he sure can make some stupid decisions that turn into goals against. He just turns it over and that created a breakaway that gave Carolina too many advantages.

A big problem of this game was turnovers by the Rangers, 2 of which turned into goals. There were an alarming amount of breakaways for Carolina. Plus, the Rangers looked slow. Too many times Carolina won races to the puck. I can’t even begin to count the number of times the Rangers were just out of range of receiving a pass or a rebound and it was just too far away to reach. That led to a lot of puck chasing which added to being on defense for too long.

The big dagger was Strome’s goal in the second period being taken away for being offsides. It was a huge moment because this broke the tie in the Rangers’ favor. The Hurricanes took proper control of the game in the second and when the Rangers managed to fight back on offense, with Strome really battling, they were rewarded with a hard-earned goal. That goal being removed really took the air out of the Rangers’ tires and they ran catchup for the rest of the game.

It also felt like Carolina had more of a plan in this game and executed it. They stifled many players on defense (I think Kreider had 2 shots on goal). They’ve also figured out what they need to do to get by Igor: get him to move as much as possible to open him up. All three goals were high quality, difficult to stop goals.

So now the Rangers’ backs are back up against the wall again. Home ice advantage seems to be everything in this series so it’s up to the Rangers to continue that trend and then figure out how to end Carolina in the final game. It’s going to be difficult and every player needs to contribute smart plays to get it done.

Series tied 2-2

New York Rangers win 4-1

This was the most convincing win in the series so far. This wasn’t just a win for the Rangers, it was a statement. The only metrics Carolina ended up ahead in were shots in goal, 31-28, which is nothing. The big advantage continues to be face-off wins at 65%. High danger shots weren’t that great and their only goal came from a bad Rangers turnover in their end which turned into a sloppy scramble. That made it 3-1 and Andrew Copp wristed a puck past Raanta just a few plays later.

The Rangers took the lead and then a commanding lead in the first period and it felt like they were in control for most of the game. Trouba laid out Domi for his end of Game 3 antics, which really set the tone and commitment for the rest of the game. Carolina is going to have to fight for everything and be smart about it or it’s going to get worse for them. The Rangers went 1-4 on the power play and the Hurricanes went 0-3.

Copp had an incredible game, Zibanejad was dancing through the whole game, Fox was making move after move, Vatrano got back on the scoreboard, and gad zooks Ryan Lindgren! He might be the lighthouse for this team. He does everything he can on every single shift he’s on and it makes everyone better. He’s earning the title of co-captain at the very least.

Another brilliant game for Igor, he made a handful of wild saves, one of which was at the very start of the game. That could have changed the way the game went after that but he kept it tied at zero, the boys in front of him got back to work to snag the lead and never looked back.

This was an incredibly exciting game and now the pressure has been dumped on Carolina. They’ve blown a two game lead, the Rangers keep getting better and now they have to keep their home game-winning streak alive. The home crowd is wild in Raleigh, they show the Hurricanes tremendous support but if things break bad for them early, it could devastate the crowd and take them out of the equation. Then, back to MSG on Saturday for even greater pressure at a hostile arena. The Rangers have the real possibility to finish this in 6 games. Barclay Goodrow is skating at practice now so the return of the team’s best face-off man could be on the horizon.