Rangers contemplate different strategy

Alain Vigneault will spend some time rethinking his strategy against the Ottawa Senators.

Particularly Jean-Gabriel Pageau.

“Maybe I’m going to put a checker on their checker,” the Rangers’ coach said in a conference call with the media Sunday afternoon, “because he’s supposed to be their checker and he got four goals.”

Informed of the comment, Guy Boucher chuckled.

“That’s a good one,” said the Senators bench boss. “I guess we’re going to play a checking game now. He’s going to check my checkers, I’m going to check his checkers.

“I guess it won’t be a chess match, it will be a checkers match.” Check mate. Vigneault would like to see the Rangers cut down on the chances they’re giving up, but what coach doesn’t want that? Generally, he claimed he’s not displeased with what he has seen from his team in an Eastern Conference best-ofseven semifinal that the Senators lead 2-0.

“Our last six periods, we’ve played some pretty good hockey,” he said. “We’ve gotten some good looks, we’ve been able to limit a pretty skilled team and we’ve been able to generate a few chances.”

With Game 3 at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, neither Vigneault nor Boucher mind the extra day off. In the Senators case, it means a little extra rest for Erik Karlsson, who clearly had some

sort of leg or foot issue again in Game 2, but still led all players with 37:32 of ice time.

Meanwhile, Rangers coaches were back at the drawing board early Sunday morning.

“I think this extra day off between games is going to be beneficial for us,” said Vigneault. “It’s going to permit us to work on a couple more things, show a little more video and it’s going to give our players an extra day.There’s no doubt that was a tough loss (Saturday), considering the way we’ve played. But having this extra 24 hours to consume it, and being able to take the time to adjust in a couple of areas, I think is going to be beneficial to our group.”