With all the negativity that spouted after Wednesday night’s loss that put the Rangers on the brink of elimination, I, for the most part, avoided Twitter and the blog comments. Nothing that was being said was going to be new, and I mostly disagreed with everything being said. People calling to trade Rick Nash, trade Ryan McDonagh, saying Cam Talbot is better than Henrik Lundqvist (seriously, that was said). It was mind boggling.

The Rangers have not been a bad team in this series. It’s arguable that they have in fact been the better team. They were definitely better in the last two games, but Braden Holtby stole those for Washington. You don’t get brownie points for playing well in the playoffs if you don’t win, but there are a lot of positive things coming from this team, despite the losses:

  • First, as mentioned above, the Rangers are playing well. They’ve dominated the possession game, they’ve played a physical game, and the forecheck finally made a full reappearance over the last two games. Holtby isn’t going to continue playing to a .950 SV%, so those bounces the Rangers need may start coming.
  • Lundqvist has been rock solid. He’s made difficult saves when he’s needed to, and it has taken a perfect shot to beat him this series.
  • The defense has also been pretty good, limiting the majority of the Caps chances to the outside. They’ve had their gaffes, but every team had defensive gaffes. Overall they’ve been good.
  • Alain Vigneault, who in my opinion has been outcoached throughout the entirety of the series, has at least corrected the matchup issue, ensuring that Alex Ovechkin isn’t on the ice when both Keith Yandle and Dan Boyle are out there.
  • The offense is snake bitten, not incompetent. They’ve been getting good shots, and Holtby has been making some great saves. Yes, they need to crash the net and get to rebounds (assuming Holtby leaves any), but they are generating chances.
  • The Rangers have more scoring depth than the Caps. The Caps certainly have more top-end talent, and no one is arguing that, but the Rangers have a few more weapons.
  • They’ve done it before, and were playing much worse hockey when they did so. If you recall, the Rangers were embarrassed at home in Game Four before heading to Pittsburgh. They won one there, one at MSG and then the finale in Pittsburgh.
  • They have two more games at MSG, and just one in Washington.

Last I checked, the Caps don’t have four wins yet. Every game has been a one goal game, a bounce of the puck here or there, and the Rangers can absolutely make this a seven game series.

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