New York Rangers: 5 Resons They Defeated Montreal in Round 1
The New York Rangers did a lot of things well in the second leg of their first round series against the Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens, however, also contributed to the Rangers winning ways.
After being considered the underdog in the series, the New York Rangers won four of six games all-important playoff games against the Montreal Canadiens in their first round matchup.
It was looking a bit bleak for the Rangers, as they got killed in game three (by far their worst game of the series) but they found a way to make adjustments and pull three straight wins out to win the series.
As the team prepares to take on another Canadian team in the Ottawa Senators in the second round of the playoffs beginning on Thursday, let’s look back at the series to find out what the top five reasons were for how the Rangers were able to win the series in six.
Henrik Lundqvist
Lundqvist was far none the best player in the series on either team and after a horrendous regular season in which he finished outside the top 30 in most goalie statistical categories, he outplayed Vezina candidate Carey Price–although Price shouldn’t be a candidate over Cam Talbot.
Lundqvist posted a 1.70 goals-against average and a .947 save percentage in the first round, two numbers that are absolutely staggering. At least a third of Montreal’s goals came at the hands of a Nick Holden-Marc Staal turnover, too, which makes what Hank was able to do even more impressive.
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A lot of people had begun ruling out the Rangers’ Stanley Cup Window and ruled out the possibility of Lundqvist continuing to be at the peak of his game after such a rough season. Boy, were they wrong.
In fact, if Lundqvist can continue to carry that play forward in the playoffs, the Rangers are as good a contender as any team.
Shea Weber and Max Pacioretty not Stepping up
While he didn’t have a bad series, per se, Shea Weber needed to be more of a focal point of a struggling Montreal offense, so in many ways, this part of it falls on Claude Julien.
Weber posted one goal, two assists and 15 shots on net in the six games of the series. While his shot total comes out to just below three shots a game (2.5) he needed to shoot more, especially on the power play.
Claude Julien should have known this. For 10 years, he coached Zdeno Chara in Boston, a very similar all around player to Weber from the big bruising body to the big bruising shot.
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Chara has seen plenty of power play time over the years at the point, ready to riffle his cannon of a shot towards the opposing goalie, or he would be stationed in front of the net, screening the goalie.
If I’m running a power play and I have Shea Weber on my team, I am literally camping him out at the point and having my forwards get him the puck so he can wire up his slap shot pretty much for two minutes straight until we score a goal.
The other guy I mentioned at the top was Pacioretty, who didn’t score a goal in the series and is probably getting eaten alive in Montreal right now. Pacioretty did come out and say that he knows what the narrative is going to be and he accepts it, and good for him. But yes, he needed to be better and produce and he didn’t.
Don’t look now, but there is cause for concern with him in the playoffs. Pacioretty has only 10 goals in 38 playoff games.
Winning on the Road
The New York Rangers had the best road record in the league last season with 27 wins in their 41 games away from Madison Square Garden. As the lower seeded team, they knew that they would have to continue to have success on the road, but this series would present an additional challenge for them since they only have 11 wins in 39 games at the Bell Centre.
Good thing that the regular season means absolutely nothing once the playoffs start because the Rangers were 0-1 in Montreal this past season. They knew they were going to have to go into Montreal’s unique playoff environment and win a few games there.
Arguably the Rangers’ two best efforts were on the road in games one and five, and they almost pulled off a game two win if it wasn’t for the poor defense of one Nick Holden in front of the net with 17 seconds remaining.
They were able to match the Canadien’s intensity from the start and were able to chime in with some physical play of their own. The Rangers showed that a skilled depth can add a physical punch but a physical depth can’t add the necessary skill to beat the opposition.
Dan Girardi
Whether it was an anomaly or maybe even because it was a slower team that he was facing, Dan Girardi stepped up, stabilized the Rangers’ top pairing and had himself a hell of a series.
In what could be the last playoff run in his Rangers career, Girardi hasn’t quite looked like his old self, but has been better than the Rangers could wish for at this point. Girardi had many big hits and many big blocks in this series and I gotta say, seeing him take to the physical play was a really pleasant sight.
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I honestly don’t know what to expect from Girardi in the next round against Ottawa. They are a team that is much faster so Girardi might be meeting his match, but stranger things have happened. The hope is that Girardi, like Lundqvist, completely flipped the switch heading into the postseason and is ready for a long run after having a long offseason last year.
If he can continue to play like this, could the Rangers buy out Marc Staal instead? Food for thought.
Insertion of Pavel Buchnevich
The entire series flipped in game four, coincidentally–or maybe not–when the Rangers put Buchnevich in the lineup by removing Tanner Glass.
I think Glass played three very good games to start the series and he didn’t deserve to sit because of that performance. However, Glass’ skillset is not the skillset the Rangers play with. Putting Glass into the lineup was like putting a square peg in a round hole, and Buchnevich’s circumference changed the series’ dynamic in a big way.
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He played well, no doubt about it, but the change was much more than that. It allowed the Rangers to roll out four skilled lines with a bunch of speed. You could see in games how, by the third period, the Habs were gassed. They had absolutely no jump left in their game and the Rangers speed allowed them to skate circles around Montreal.
Going forward, the Rangers need to leave the forward group and lines the same. Putting Tanner Glass back out against a team like Ottawa is asking for a roundtrip home for the summer, as Ottawa is a team that plays a very similar style to the Rangers.
Next: Top 5 Moments From the Rangers-Canadiens Series
No matter how you shake it, the Rangers-Senators series could be one of the fastest played series in playoff history, so Buchnevich needs to stay in the lineup and eventually our Russian son will begin to add to the scoresheet.