New York Rangers: How the Rangers will win it all
The New York Rangers are now 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning. They are two wins away from a trip to the Stanley Cup Final, a place they haven’t been to since 2014 when they lost to the Los Angeles Kings. The Rangers have a chance to make a Stanley Cup appearance once again. Not only can they make it there, but they can win it all. Here is how.
Brayden Point
First of all, the Rangers still have to get passed the Lightning. The two-time defending Stanley Cup Champions are not going to give up easily. They may be down 2-0 in the series, but this is a great team. Great teams don’t just quit. They still have a lot of work to do though.
It doesn’t help that the Lightning lost one of their best players, Brayden Point, in Game 7 in the first round against the Toronto Maple Leafs. He suffered a lower body injury and since then, he has not played.
Point is a key player that the Lightning are disappointed to lose. In the seven playoff games he played in, Point has four points, two goals and two assists. For the season, Point had 58 points in 66 games.
In the past two seasons, Point led the NHL in playoff goals, scoring 14 each year. He was second in points (56) to Nikita Kucherov (66). Point is sorely missed by the Lightning and their fans.
Round One
The irony of the playoffs this year is that the Rangers weren’t even expected to make the playoffs. They weren’t even looked at as a competitor. Look at where they are at now and what led to this point.
The Rangers ended up finishing in second place behind the Carolina Hurricanes. They had 110 points in the regular season to give them home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs.
After being down 3-1 in the series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, who expected the Rangers to actually pull it off and advance? Very few. Yes there were fans that, like any sports fan, has a belief that their team can do it. Usually it is a false hope. Fans don’t want to bash their own team and say the team won’t or can’t win.
The Rangers not only proved all the haters wrong, but they did it in record-breaking fashion. The Rangers came back after being down in the series. They were also down several times on the scoreboard. They fought their way back, as they had done all season long. They were second, only to the Florida Panthers (29), with come-from-behind wins with 27.
If someone would have told me at the start of the playoffs that the Rangers were going to be down 3-1 and then win three games straight, I wouldn’t have told that person he/she was nuts. I won’t lie though. I did have some doubts after the Penguins got their third win, but I never gave up on them. I have even said it wasn’t over and I had told people, family and friends, not to count the Rangers out. I have said that if they won Game Six in Pittsburgh, it was over and the Rangers will be advancing. I was that confident they could do it and they did.
How the Rangers made it to the playoffs
The Rangers are winning because of a few key factors. The first being their goalie, Igor Shesterkin. Without him, the Rangers wouldn’t be where they are at. Shesterkin is nominated for the Hart Trophy and Vezina Trophy. The Hart Trophy represents the most valuable player on his team. The Vezina Trophy is given to the best goalie in the league.
Shesterkin is 10-5 in the playoffs with a 2.60 goals against average (GAA) and a .929 save percentage (Sv%). In the regular season, Shesterkin was 36-13-0-4 with a 2.07 GAA and .935 Sv% in 53 games. Wow! That’s all I can say. He is amazing.
I can’t leave out the other players that led to the Rangers 52 wins, one shy of their all-time record. These players include Adam Fox, Jacob Trouba, Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, and Chris Kreider. These guys helped the team to win by scoring, blocking shots, setting up epic chances, and showing pure heart.
Kreider scored 52 goals and led the team in power play goals with 26. He recently won the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award and the first ever Rod Gilbert “Mr. Ranger” Award. The Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award is presented to the Ranger who goes above and beyond his normal duty. The Rod Gilbert Award goes to the Rangers player who shows “leadership qualities both on and off the ice”, while also “making a significant humanitarian contribution to his community.”
How the Rangers advanced this far
There was a point in the playoffs when their major players weren’t making an impact at all. This is when the Kid Line started to get in on the action. Literally.
Filip Chytil, Kaapo Kakko, and Alexis Lafrenière have had to lift the Rangers up during hard times. Because of this, the rest of the team started getting pumped up by these youngsters. This brought the whole team together and now everybody is playing their role.
It has been a while since I have seen a Rangers team collectively play they way they’ve been playing. Every single player on the ice has a role and each man is doing his job and then some. It is amazing and incredible to watch. The crazy part of this is that it seems the team gets better as the playoffs roll along.
The Lightning had nine days of rest since sweeping the President’s Trophy winners, the Panthers. The Rangers had one day of rest. Also, the Rangers came off of a Game Seven win against the Hurricanes. Their first series against the Penguins also went to a Game Seven. How are they getting better?
The answer is rather simple. All their players are doing what they are getting paid to do. The remarkable part though is that they are doing it all at once, which doesn’t happen often. Each and every one of the players on this team is contributing to their teams’ success and it couldn’t come at a better time.
If they keep playing like this, any team playing them will have a rough time. Don’t be surprised to see them challenging for the Cup.
Keeping things going in the right direction
The Rangers can’t let up on the gas. They have to play hard, continue to be physical, have an excellent PP, and shut down their opposing team’s chances. If they don’t let up, things are going to get rather interesting down the stretch, making it hard, maybe impossible, for the Lightning to come back.
I really see the Rangers making it and winning it. Nobody can deny what they have done when expectations were pretty low for them at the start of the season.
My prediction is easy. The Rangers will beat the Lightning and win the Cup. I can feel something happening with this team that I never saw before. I do remember them winning in 1994, but I was a kid then and didn’t follow the team like I do now. Does anyone else have this same sense of strength and determination with this team as I do?
In control of the series. light. Related Story