NEW YORK – When the New York Rangers take the Garden ice tonight they must stay focused and finishing out the series. It is all in the back of our minds that the Rangers have given their fans enough stress in trying to close out a series. You go back to the Eastern Conference Finals of 2014 when Daniel Briere told reporters the Rangers do not want to go back to Montreal for a game 7. He was right in a sense when you think about it. Fortunately for the Rangers they were able to win game 6 on home ice 1-0 to advance to the Stanley Cup finals.
Off of a overtime thriller, the Rangers must carry over that momentum within the first ten minutes of tonight’s game six. They must keep the crowd engaged and into from the moment the puck drops. In the morning skate, head coach Alain Vigneault talked mostly about the dreadful power play that is 0-for-14 in the series basically saying the power play is due.
When you break down this series the Canadiens have scored on their power play when they needed to. It hasn’t been much but when needing a power play goal they have been able to do it. The Rangers have had 14 chances, some of which they generated great chances but can’t finish.
This series has also been a series of terrific goaltending and tonight Henri Lundqvist is going to be tested. You will have to expect the Habs will throw everything they can in order to force this series to go the distance.
It is pretty interesting hearing AV use the words “we’re due”. That case can be made in many players in this series on both sides. You have to expect Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty is due for something because he has been held off the score sheet despite being near the top in shots on goal in the playoffs. We saw one of the players who were due to do something in game five and that was OT hero Mika Zibanejad. All the Rangers need now is for guys like Chris Kreider, Kevin Hayes and Mats Zuccarello (who has been somewhat noticeable) to build off some solid chances they had in game 5.
Can history repeat itself tonight? Can the Rangers finish out the series and move on to the second round with some much needed days off to prepare? The puck drops at 8pm tonight at the Garden.
