DON'T LET UP!
Rangers are hot, yet series far from over
OTTAWA — The challenge for the Rangers entering Saturday’s teetertotter Game 5 is neither so much the trap nor containing Erik Karlsson as it is continuing to give the Senators the respect they did not earn through two of the most negligible playoff performances you ever have seen.
They must guard against overconfidence.
It is difficult to gauge credit and fault for the Blueshirts’ twin resounding 4-1 victories in Games 3 and 4 at the Garden that squared the series, because as sharp as the Rangers were, that is exactly how indolent the opposition was in every aspect of the game.
No asterisks for Karlsson’s questionable health, either, unless you now would care to affix one to the Rangers’ 2015 conference finals elimination by the Lightning that ended with the defense’s Big Three of Ryan McDonagh, Dan Girardi and Marc Staal operating on a combined three lower extremities.
Surely, the Blueshirts were buttoned down, methodical and detail-oriented while also displaying the requisite emotion and commitment. They moved the puck well and intelligently. They took the body at every opportunity. They got in on the forecheck and forced the Senators to defend below the hash marks for extended shifts. They were sharp in the neutral zone on both sides of the puck and received a pair of essentially spotless performances from Henrik Lundqvist.
The Rangers practiced Monday against a scout team of taxi-squad members that mimicked the Ottawa trap, and truth is, the varsity didn’t seem to do a very good job at all of breaking it. Then again, the opposition presented in Tarrytown by players including the recalled Nicklas Jensen and Chris Summers was stiffer than that provided by guys like Derick Brassard and Dion Phaneuf in Manhattan.
But the Blueshirts obviously benefitted from the exercise. They broke out of their end in control and with numbers and were able to beat the trap with
speed off headman passes and with support on their dump-ins in Games 3 and 4. They controlled the pace and limited Ottawa’s ability to generate turnovers and attack off the transition.
The Rangers made a point to get a piece of Karlsson at every conceivable opportunity, all but taking away the resplendent defenseman’s time and space regardless of where he was on the ice. And with Karlsson negated to a large degree, the Senators and coach Guy Boucher had no Plan B.
So we’re through four games in which the Rangers have led for 149:56 (and by at least two goals for 102:33), have been tied for 108:47 and have trailed for only the final 4:11 of Game 1 after Karlsson’s cue ball out of the side pocket off Lundqvist’s head.
This may not be the 1960 World Series, but it is as one-sided as 2-2 can possibly be. And the Rangers have to ensure they don’t become the Yankees to Ottawa’s Pittsburgh Pirates. They have to do whatever they can to safeguard against a metaphorical pebble deterring them from their destiny.
There are reasons to be encouraged about this team. Chris Kreider, J.T. Miller and Kevin Hayes all improved in New York following sleepy games in Ottawa. Michael Grabner has reemerged as a force, his speed at times turning the Austrian Express into a one-man trapbuster. The lack of discipline evident in Ottawa, when the club was shorthanded twice in the f irst 7:29 of Game 1 and three times within the opening 10:18 of Game 2, was rectified. Alain Vigneault coached to his team’s strength in rolling four lines while elevating the Brady Skjei-Brendan Smith tandem to secondpair matchup status.
Again, though, the Rangers played without serious opposition and absent adversity. They are smart and experienced enough to know that. And they are smart and experienced enough to know that a series can turn on a dime. Vigneault has been through enough of these things, too, to understand that.
Unless devoid of pride, the Senators will be better in Game 5. The Blueshirts cannot afford to let their guard down. They cannot afford to deviate from their structure. The series is 2-2. Two of a possible next three would be played in Ottawa. This is no time for overconfidence. The heavy lifting remains ahead.