Battle Of Hudson

By showing determination and guts, the Rangers get another elimination game against the Bruins. It won’t be any easier in a hostile environment. They’ve only won once on the road this postseason, entering 1-5. The one was facing elimination at Washington and making franchise history by winning the first ever Game 7 away from MSG. Recent history shows that under John Tortorella, the Blueshirts don’t give up easily. Dating back to last year’s run to the Conference Finals, they’re 6-1 when facing elimination.

That’s precisely why Tortorella refers to this team as a good group and further explains why you never hear anything negative from our players. By getting to Tuukka Rask, it should give them confidence. They’ll need to get off quickly. Scoring early would go a long way to getting this series back to the Garden. It might create some doubt for an opponent familiar with blowing a 3-0 lead. The Bruins were victimized by the Flyers in this very round three years ago. Since, they’ve won a Cup and stunned Toronto to get here. They understand the situation. Look for them to be even more desperate. No way do they want Game 6.

If the Rangers are to make it to Monday, they must stay disciplined. A couple of the penalties they took the other day were unacceptable. The B’s essentially scored all three on Henrik Lundqvist due to their power play. Definitely not a strong suit but they took advantage and almost sent our team home. Special teams have had an impact. For once, the Ranger power play came through when Brian Boyle beat Rask to force extras with 10 minutes left in regulation. Derek Stepan responded with a strong third stripping Zdeno Chara and tying the game 2-2 and then threading the needle to Boyle. He also won a huge defensive draw that led to Kreider’s heroics. Step is proof that players do develop under the guidance of Tortorella. He’s made tremendous strides.

With Anton Stralman likely out, Roman Hamrlik will probably play again. Though shaky in his return, he provided decent short shifts. Obviously, it’s a tough situation for the vet. Tortorella will lean heavily on Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi. Mike Del Zotto’s received a ton of minutes playing even more than Girardi in Game 3. While true enough he’s struggled, the coaching staff trusts him enough under pressure. Both MDZ and John Moore have panicked with the puck, coughing it up. They must limit those mistakes. Steve Eminger has given the Rangers valuable time, playing physical. They’ll need it again.

If they are to win today, Nash must continue to be aggressive. He’s skated better as the series has gone on and looked dangerous in Game 4. It’ll be interesting to see if Tortorella puts him and Kreider back with Derick Brassard or keeps them with Stepan. Brassard continues to impress tallying a pair of assists in our win. He has been unafraid to make plays and hasn’t backed down. It would be nice if Ryan Callahan scores a goal. He does everything else. They could use one of his gritty specials. Carl Hagelin and Mats Zuccarello are other candidates. Our team will need to be hard on the puck, finishing checks. Exactly why Tortorella inserted grinders Kris Newbury and Micheal Haley. Newbury better stay out of the box. I wouldn’t mind seeing Arron Asham in for Derek Dorsett, who hasn’t been effective. Asham is a better skater and has a cannon of a shot that’s produced two goals.

Obviously, to win Hank must be Hank. He’s certainly capable of stealing a game. Lundqvist has made a lot of difficult saves against a feisty Boston team that’s made life difficult. Our guys need to push them out. If he can see the shot, he’ll stop it. Another positive is that three of the four games have been decided by a goal. Even with the Bruins controlling much of the play, our goalie’s been the equalizer. Had they prevailed in Game 1, it’d be tied. If they pull it out, it’ll be close.

OT Hero: Excited Rangers come over to mob Chris Kreider following his Game Four overtime goal that forced Game Five. Getty Images/Frank Franklin II

The Rangers needed a miracle of sorts. They got it thanks to a bizarre play from Tuukka Rask. Already down two with nothing going, Carl Hagelin’s harmless backhand roller got by a fallen Rask to breathe life back into an eerily quiet MSG. The Bruins led on a pair of power play goals from Nathan Horton and Torey Krug. Krug had just scored to put them ahead two. But instead of burying the Rangers for good, Rask’s fall sparked an improbable comeback. They rallied from 2-0 and 3-2 deficits, finally winning on Chris Kreider’s goal 7:03 into overtime to prevail 4-3 over Boston in Game Four.

Astonishingly, the Rangers are still alive. It took one of the oddest goals in the playoffs along with a lot of determination and guts. But they finally solved Rask, beating him four times including a fancy Kreider finish off a great feed from Rick Nash to extend the Eastern Conference Semifinal series. There’ll be a Game Five at TD Garden Saturday. The task doesn’t get any easier with the Bruins having the chance to close it out in front of their fans. The Rangers will look to avoid elimination and force Game Six back at home.

Much like the first three games of the series, the Bruins spent most of the first period attacking the Rangers with a relentless forecheck, outshooting them 12-4. They took the crowd out of it early by continuing to mount pressure. Only Henrik Lundqvist prevented them from surging ahead. He stopped all dozen shots keeping it scoreless.

The Rangers ran into penalty trouble in the second. Consecutive penalties by Kris Newbury and Mike Del Zotto put them in a deep hole. After Newbury was called for goalie interference, the Bruins connected when Nathan Horton cashed in on a loose puck that deflected off a sliding Del Zotto. He caught Lundqvist off balance for his fifth. David Krejci and Brad Marchand helped set it up. Already up one, they scored a second straight power play goal. This time, Del Zotto was the guilty party for interference. It was more conventional with Krug continuing his assault by firing a laser top shelf for his third of the series. Horton and Tyler Seguin added helpers.

At that critical point, the Rangers had nothing going. They had only eight shots and couldn’t sustain a consistent attack. That’s when the hockey Gods gave them a boost. Taking a pass from Derick Brassard, Hagelin flubbed a weak backhand towards a stumbling Rask. The play seemed to be in slow motion. Unable to recover in time, Rask watched helplessly as the puck went into the net. Suddenly, MSG was alive. In a role reversal, the Blueshirts started taking it to the Bruins. They came close to tying it a couple of times. With Jaromir Jagr off for tossing Derek Stepan down, Nash was thwarted twice by Rask. The Bruins nursed a one-goal lead into intermission.

The third very well could’ve been their last. But the Rangers weren’t ready to die. Some hustle from Stepan resulted in him tying it 1:15 in. Off strong pressure from Nash, Stepan snuck up and stripped the puck from Zdeno Chara stuffing in a wraparound past Rask for his fourth. The unassisted tally got MSG buzzing. They nearly went ahead on a Brassard try that drew iron. Instead, an unpredictable game saw the Bruins basically cash in on a Ryan McDonagh goaltender interference. Following a strong Ranger kill, Chara and Dougie Hamilton combined to set up Seguin’s first. They led 3-2 with 11:54 remaining.

But as they had proven already, a determined Blueshirts rose up again. Boston was called for a bench minor. To that point, the Ranger power play had fired blanks. They were down to 2-for-40. For once, it came through when Brian Boyle finished off his third from Stepan and Brassard. Brassard dropped for Stepan in the corner, who found Boyle wide open in the slot for an actual power play goal, which tied the game 3-3 with 10 minutes left in regulation. Each team tried to go ahead but to no avail with both netminders making big stops, forcing sudden death.

Unlike Game One, OT was more even with the Rangers getting plenty of opportunities to win it. In fact, both sides had a pair of seven shots. But it was the Rangers Lucky 7 that proved to be the difference. Following a Bruins flurry that included a huge Lundqvist pad denial on Jagr, Stepan beat Krejci on a defensive draw and McDonagh sent Nash in with Kreider. Nash went around Chara and made a sweet dish for a cutting Kreider, who beat Hamilton for a neat redirection for his first of the postseason. That finally got the monkey off the back for the Rangers’ first OT win of the playoffs.

NY Puck 3 Stars:

3rd Star-Rick Nash, NYR (set up Kreider’s winner, 5 SOG, +2 in 22:59-made a big play)
2nd Star-Chris Kreider, NYR (scored OT winner at 7:03-was flying all night and deserved it)
1st Star-Henrik Lundqvist, NYR (37 saves incl. 12/12-Hank made it possible)

At some point, you have to make necessary changes. Even when Rangers coach John Tortorella decided to healthy scratch Brad Richards for tonight’s do or die Game 4, it couldn’t have been easy. The coach and player have a longstanding relationship dating back to better days when a younger Richards helped lead Tampa Bay to the Stanley Cup in 2004. He won the Conn Smythe posting 26 points (12-14-26) including seven power play goals and seven game-winners. 

Too often, Henrik Lundqvist has been left alone to stop chances like Tyler Seguin’s breakaway. He hasn’t gotten the support from a flawed roster that isn’t as good as last year. Getty Images/Seth Wenig

Sometimes, it’s as simple as match-ups. Simply put, the Rangers are outgunned in the second round series. They just don’t have enough muscle to match the Bruins. Boston’s a much deeper team and that’s what we’re seeing. Toss aside two one-goal defeats including tonight’s crusher with fourth liner Daniel Paille notching the winner with 3:31 left in regulation that propelled the Bruins to a 2-1 Game Three triumph- putting the Blueshirts on the brink. 

I don’t always agree with him on his philosophy, personnel decisions and commentary. For better or worse, he’s gotten the Rangers to buy in. Last year’s team was a spitting image of Tort. They grinded out the first two rounds after posting the East’s best record. Eventually, they ran out of gas in the Conference Finals. That btw was our franchise’s first Final Four appearance since ’97.

A year later, they’re in a tough spot against the Bruins. Being in an 0-2 predicament is tough enough. They won four of the last five to eliminate the Caps in the first round. In that series, they exorcised a lot of demons, including winning a deciding Game 7 on the road against a team that owned them. Our offense stepped up. You heard me right. In three of their four wins, the Blueshirts scored three-or-better. That featured consecutive 4-3 decisions sweeping Games 3 and 4 to even the series. They’ll need to summon a similar effort starting tonight.

Nothing this team ever does is easy. Why should it be? While true they’re facing a better opponent, they’re more than capable of coming back against Boston. Nobody’s talking about the weak defense we’ve seen. The focus as usual is either on our hopeless power play or Tortorella’s silly commentary on Carl Hagelin being taken out of context. NBC stinks. You’d think Pierre McGuire would come up with better questions. Between that and Mike Milbury’s shenanigans, it’s fairly obvious who NBC favors.

I get it. The Rangers aren’t fun to watch. They don’t play an exciting style that captivates audiences. Tortorella doesn’t make friends with anyone. We’re universally hated for these reasons. That’s fine. I don’t want anyone playing the whole NBC caters to us crap. That’s garbage. They only care about RATING$. Even during the second round, you have to hear constant banter about the Penguins. Sidney Crosby is the best player in the sport. How about finding something else to discuss during this series. It’s New York versus Boston. A compelling match-up even if neither coach wins style points.

I could do without all the nonsense. Let’s just play hockey tonight. No team has ever rallied from a 2-0 deficit in consecutive series. The Rangers can make playoff history. It’s not what any Ranger fan hoped for. If you bleed blue and are at MSG, do everyone else a favor. Let your voices be heard. Our team needs you more than ever. They also better deliver a clutch performance. It’s time to hit back.

Zdeno Chara will be doing battle against Rick Nash as a classic rivalry is renewed. Copyright Getty Images/Boston Herald

In the second round of the NHL playoffs, you have two classic match-ups. Indeed, four Original Sixes are left in the chase for Lord Stanley. Yesterday, Chicago and Detroit got going with the Blackhawks prevailing 3-1 over the Red Wings in what amounts to the final time they’ll meet out West. On the flip side, New York and Boston are sports adversaries who’ll continue to hate each other. No matter the sport, classic rivalries exist. The passion of two cities will be reunited again when the Rangers battle the Bruins in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. It’s their first postseason meeting since 1973. It only took 40 years. The fun begins tonight.

For almost certain Hart winner Alex Ovechkin, it’s little consolation. The defeated look on the Caps superstar captain summed it up. Anyone who thinks he didn’t give it all he had doesn’t know hockey. He delivered a thunderous check that crushed McDonagh cutting him. Like the warrior he is, he returned after only missing a shift and continued to blanket the Great 8. This is what separates hockey from the other sports. To think our team only made it through one round. They still have three more to go and 12 more victories to reach 16 W. The Bruins are up next beginning Thursday. Another epic battle awaits in one of the oldest rivalries left. Boston versus New York. Get your popcorn ready.