The New York Rangers have been here before. So don’t bet against them coming up in the clutch again.
Game Five was a tough one for the Blueshirts. Gerard Gallant’s team played a real solid game at Madison Square Garden and were on their way to re-taking control of this series, only for the Tampa Bay Lightning to deliver late heartbreak again.
It was even more of a crushing blow given that the loss had come at Madison Square Garden, where the Rangers had previously won eight straight in the playoffs.
It leaves the team heading back to Tampa for a do-or-die Game Six, their sixth elimination game of the postseason.
The bad news? It took two games but the Lightning are playing like a back-to-back Stanley Cup champion and their wealth of postseason experience will give them an edge as they look to close out this series on home ice.
The good news? That’s simple; the New York Rangers have been here before.
Five times, to be exact.
On five occasions this postseason the Rangers have found themselves in a win-or-go-home situation. And on all five occasions they delivered.
They never led in their First Round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins but found a way to get past a Sidney Crosby-led team that had been there and done it in the postseason.
They were down again in the Second Round against the Carolina Hurricanes, an absolute wagon of a team that had the Rangers’ number during the regular season. But, yet again, the Blueshirts found a way to force a Game Seven and get the job done.
Now they find themselves in similar territory. Well, kind of. The Lightning are a different beast altogether and, their championship pedigree aside, they are the toughest test the Rangers have faced in these playoffs.
Furthermore, the Rangers look gassed. Several players are playing hurt and the Blueshirts have played more games in fewer days than any NHL team in the playoffs in 30 years. Something has got to give eventually.
With an average age of 26.7, the Rangers’ roster is full of players who have never been here before and it would be a fair question to wonder if they’ve now hit a collective wall.
After all, they are coming up against a team in the Lightning who know what it takes to overcome adversity in the playoffs, who know what it takes to grind out wins and cross the finishing line on the way to the promised land.
However, despite the formidable obstacle standing in their way, the Rangers can take heart from the fact that they’ve proved time and time again in these playoffs how mentally tough they are. No matter what has been thrown at them, they’ve refused to die and that mentality must take center stage tonight.
It won’t be easy given that this team has now been outscored 10-4 in three straight losses but, again, the Rangers have proven experts at clawing themselves out of a gaping hole and living to fight another day.
That prior experience of fighting off elimination will be huge and all the Rangers have to worry about is winning one game tonight. If they can pull that off, then who knows what might happen in a Game Seven back at The Garden.
While history is on Tampa’s side – the Bolts are 10-4 in series-clinching games over the past three seasons – the Rangers can take confidence from the fact they’ve been in this situation five times before and they’ve prevailed every single time.
And, with the X-Factor in goal in Igor Shesterkin, there’s no reason to think why they can’t do it for a sixth time.
So let’s not count them out just yet.