New York Rangers: How the Rangers will win it all

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?