Going into Round One of the playoffs, the thinking among New York Rangers fans was that it had the chance to be a cakewalk. The Blueshirts had dominated the Penguins in their season series and it looked like they had their number. It wasn’t to be and the Rangers were lucky to escape with a series win and it took overtime and a Game Seven to do it.
The shoe is on the other foot in Round Two. As dominant as the Blueshirts were over the Penguins, the Hurricanes were over the Rangers. The two teams saw a lot of each other late in the season with all four games after late January. The Rangers escaped with one win, stolen by Alexandar Georgiev and lost the other three while being outplayed the entire series.
The Blueshirts should be encouraged that the Bruins were able to extend the Canes to seven games. There were some lessons to be learned from that series that the Rangers should focus on.
Crisp zone exits
When the Rangers are at their best, they get out of the zone quickly and use their transition game to wreak havoc on their opponents. That was the story in the first period of Game One when they overwhelmed the Penguins.
It’s going to be even more important against the Hurricanes who have a more tenacious forechecking game that smothers their opponents. The Rangers defense will have to be speedy and decisive on their exits from their zone and those decisions have to be the right ones. Careless cross ice passes can be costly (see Evan Rodrigues’ breakaway in Game Seven) and the Hurricanes are a better transition team than Pittsburgh.
The good news is the Rangers can be excellent at transition when they want to be and they also have Igor Shesterkin as a “third” defenseman who can help get the puck out of the zone.