New York Rangers: 3 keys to winning Game 6 and staying alive
It is do-or-die time yet again for the New York Rangers.
After a tough loss in Game Five at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers now face their sixth elimination game of the playoffs as they head back to Tampa for Game Six against the Lightning.
Despite being 5-0 in win-or-go-home games this postseason, the Blueshirts face their toughest test yet against the reigning back-to-back Stanley Cup Champions. After a slow start to the series, the Lightning have dominated the last three games.
They’ve outscored the Rangers 10-4 on their way to winning three straight, and they have the wealth of postseason experience and the intangibles needed to close out this series on home ice tonight.
However, if there’s one thing we’ve learned over the last month or so it’s that you can’t count out these Rangers, and there’s no reason why they can’t improve to 6-0 in elimination games and force a Game Seven back at Madison Square Garden.
If they are to live to fight another day, though, here’s the three keys they will need to win on the road for the first time in the Eastern Conference Finals…
Igor to the rescue
You don’t win championships without great goaltending, and the Rangers won’t stay alive unless they get another heroic performance from Igor Shesterkin.
Period.
Shesterkin has elevated his game to the next level throughout the playoffs, truly cementing his status as one of the best young goalies in the National Hockey League.
However, the Vezina Trophy finalist is going to have to dig deep and find another gear in order to out-duel Andrei Vasilevskiy and help his team force a Game Seven.
It helps that Shesterkin has come up clutch in all five of the Rangers’ elimination wins this postseason; giving up just 13 goals on 186 shots and not allowing his save percentage to dip below .906.
He’s going to have to be even more locked in tonight given that the Lightning will look to get pucks to the net from the first drop of the puck. Amalie Arena will be up for grabs and Shesterkin will have to be ready for a busy night.
After a shaky opening two games to the Eastern Conference Finals, in which the Rangers figured out a weak point by shooting upstairs, Vasilevskiy has recovered and has been clutch for the Bolts in the past three games.
He’s allowed just four goals on a combined 90 shots in that three-game span, while he came up with a number of big saves in the Lightning’s Game Five win.
This series was always going to revolve around the elite showdown between two of the game’s premier netminders in Vasilevskiy and Shesterkin, and the latter must win this latest battle if the Rangers are to live to fight another day in this war of attrition.
Killer instinct
Maybe the Rangers would be wise to watch Steph Curry absolutely ball out in Game Four of the NBA Finals as some pre-game motivation.
With the Golden State Warriors trailing 2-1 in their series and on the road against the Boston Celtics, who had the NBA’s best defensive record in the regular season, Curry came to play.
One of the best shooters we’ve ever seen came up clutch time and time again, delivering a heroic 43-point performance and draining seven three-pointers.
It was a shining example of what the greatest do in the biggest moments, and the Rangers should take some inspiration from Curry prior to Game Six.
A lot of the Rangers’ struggles in Game Five came down to their inability to create traffic in-front of net and, when they did, they couldn’t take advantage.
Ryan Strome fanning on a shot with the net wide open with five minutes remaining being the the obvious and most painful example. Tampa would go on to score the go-ahead goal moments later to take a 3-2 series lead.
Oh no, Ryan Strome... pic.twitter.com/z6shPLyyO6
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) June 10, 2022
That Strome miss could end up being to Rangers fan what ‘The Shot’ is to Cleveland Cavaliers fans, what ‘The Fumble’ is to Browns fans and what the ‘Foot-In-The-Crease goal’ is to Dallas Stars fans.
Especially if it all ends tonight.
So, with that being said, the Rangers need to follow the lead of Curry, and indeed the Lightning, and be more ruthless. They have to get pucks to the net, they need to create screens in-front of Vasilevskiy and they have to get back to what earned them so much success in Games One and Two.
Gerard Gallant’s team found joy when shooting up high on Vasilevskiy, and they need to avoid shooting down low given how elite the goalie’s lateral movement is.
The Rangers only generated 25 shots on net in Game Five and that isn’t going to get the job done against a team as good as Tampa Bay is. They need to generate a hell of a lot more and then be ruthless when opportunities do present themselves.
With Igor Shesterkin in net, they have a huge advantage but that will only count if this team can show a killer instinct in the offensive zone and give their goalie some much-needed support. If they can’t, then it will all be over.
Curry flashed that killer instinct when his team needed it the most, and the Rangers must now be ruthless themselves if they are to put off their vacation plans a little while longer.
Time for heroes
As has been discussed many times before, the postseason is built for heroes and those heroes normally come in the form of superstars and players that are built for the big moments.
We’ve seen it with Tampa Bay as big-hitters like Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, and of course, Vasilevskiy have all come up clutch in the past three games.
Now it is time for some of the Rangers’ big-hitters to deliver an all-time heroic performance.
Because it is needed. Now more than ever.
Facing a sixth elimination game in these playoffs, the Blueshirts need more from some of their biggest stars and those stars need to bring it. No matter what.
Just as Mark Messier did in 1994 when he guaranteed that his team would win Game Six of the Eastern Conference Finals before going out and potting a hat-trick to force a Game Seven.
That kind of mentality has to be adopted by the likes of Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Artemi Panarin and Adam Fox, who will carry the load when it comes to producing the kind of offensive production the Rangers will need to win tonight.
With Head Coach Gerard Gallant considering mixing up his lines for Game Six, the onus will be on the likes of Panarin, Zibanejad and Kreider to step up and really deliver.
Panarin was better in Game Five but he’s capable of much, much more, while Zibanejad and Kreider have been largely shut down in this series. Maybe throwing Zibanejad and Panarin on a line together would create hell for Tampa Bay. As for Kreider, he has to do a much better job of getting to the front of the net and causing problems for Vasilevskiy.
Make no doubt about it though; the stage is set for someone to step up and become a hero tonight, and the Rangers will need every last drop of energy and quality from their stars if they are to survive and live to see another day.
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