With the Rangers stunning victory over the Capitals now in the history books, attention will now turn to the Eastern Conference finals and opponents Rangers South Tampa Bay. There’ll be a more thorough look ahead to the ECF over the next couple days but let’s throw up some quick hits about the matchup with the high octane Lightning.
The Rangers can’t progress past the Lightning if they play the way they did against the Caps. The Rangers never-give-up attitude was admirable, their play at times impressive but individual errors, inconsistency and a lack of a 60 minute effort in any of the seven games against the Caps will be more ruthlessly punished against Tampa.
Somehow the Rangers managed to outlast Braden Holtby. That was after they ran into a hot goalie in Marc Andre Fleury in round one. It begs the question, are the Rangers struggling to finish or have they really faced two exceptional goalies on a hot streak? Where does Ben Bishop sit amongst opposing goaltenders?
Bishop has an intimidating and impressive personal record against the Rangers but hasn’t been unbeatable so far in these playoffs. The Rangers need to get onto him quickly and early. Bishop is rocking an 8-0-0 record with a .946 S% and 2 shutouts against the Rangers. Yikes.
The Rangers will be confident going into the Tampa series because, with all due respect to Bishop, the Rangers have a huge advantage in net, particularly given Henrik Lundqvist’s current form.
For the first time in this year’s playoffs the Rangers won’t have a significant advantage in terms of depth or speed. This makes their execution all the more important. Breaking out from their own zone effectively and quick transitions will be vital.
The Lightning are not a particularly strong road team (32 home wins compared to 18 road wins), making the first two games of the series critical. It would be huge if the Rangers could go to Florida with a 2 game lead, with the pressure then squarely on Tampa.
Conventional wisdom suggests Rick Nash and co. will get the opportunity to produce more against Tampa but in the regular season Tampa gave up less shots/game than Washington, had a better ranked penalty kill and were only marginally weaker in goals against/game. No one should assume this will be a high scoring series.
The Lightning had a 3-0-0 record against the Rangers in the regular season. It means nothing in mid-May.
Some people suggest Steven Stamkos has been subpar so far but he’s not far off a point/game average in the playoffs. Make no mistake, the Lightning have an abundance of weapons with and without Stamkos. Tyler Johnson (the new Marty St Louis) has 8 goals in 13 games.
The Rangers need to resuscitate Marty St. Louis. The future Hall of famer has reached a new low with his temporary benching Wednesday night. St Louis has scored multiple overtime winners in his career yet with the Rangers desperate for a goal St Louis rode pine. The Rangers need something from St Louis against his former team.
To get to the Stanley Cup finals again, the Rangers will arguably have to go through the best three skaters in the league in Crosby, Ovechkin and Stamkos.
Callahan, Boyle, Stralman; which former Ranger will the Rangers be most worried about?
Chris Kreider is the key to the Rangers beating Tampa Bay. He has 5 goals, leads the team in hits and when he’s been on this spring he’s been absolutely dominant. The Lightning has some serious size on their blueline which makes Kreider particularly important.
Question time:
- Who is the most important Ranger in this series?
- Who will lead the Rangers in scoring against Tampa?
- What one area do the Rangers need to improve most against Tampa?
- What scares you most about Tampa?
- The Rangers will win the series if….?
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