It is do-or-die time for the New York Rangers who face elimination in Game Five of their First Round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Following an ugly beatdown in Game Four at PPG Paints Arena, the Rangers now face a situation where they must win at Madison Square Garden tonight or else see a year full of hope and progress halt to a disappointing end.
The omens are not good though, with the Rangers 2-18 when down 3-1 in a best-of-seven series, while teams that lead 3-1 in a best-of-seven series are 296-30, including 5-1 in the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
While this season has been another significant step in the right direction for this franchise, the way things have transpired in the last couple of games in this series won’t leave you with any other sensation other than frustration and disappointment.
After falling short in Game Three despite a gutsy second-period comeback, the Blueshirts collapsed like a cheap pack of cards in Game Four after showing no fight or conviction against a Penguins team that is taking full advantage of their own wealth of postseason experience.
As such, one more loss will seal the Rangers’ fate and there are four objectives they must complete if they are to win Game Five and live to fight another day…
Play Hard, Play Fast
This may sound obvious but the New York Rangers will need to play hard tonight if they are to stop the Penguins from advancing at Madison Square Garden.
Other than the first period of Game One and most of Game Two the Blueshirts have not done a good job of exchanging blows with their opponent and they completely threw in the towel on Monday night.
They’ve also gotten away from the key ingredients that made them such a success in the regular season, collecting more points than they had done in the past seven years.
As Head Coach Gerard Gallant stated, the Rangers must go back to playing a fast brand of hockey in order to slow Pittsburgh down, and they also need to play a hard-nosed style of hockey from the first drop of the puck.
The Penguins will be motivated to get the job done as quickly as possible so they can rest before the Second Round, so the Rangers have to be prepared to go to war and perfect the basics of the game if they are to force a Game Six.
That includes finishing checks, executing an aggressive forecheck, getting pucks in deep and creating traffic in front of Louis Domingue, who has been living on easy street since coming in during Game One.
Put simply, the Rangers must get back to basics and they must play the kind of simple hockey that has been proven to get results in the playoffs. If they can do that then they may just save their season for another day at least.