Coming into this evening’s Game 5 between the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers at the TD Garden, each team finds themselves at opposite ends of the spectrum.
On one hand, the Bruins are looking to end this series and begin preparing for the Eastern Conference Finals against the Pittsburgh Penguins. By making several careless mistakes in Game 4, the Bruins let the game slip away and now find themselves playing a Game 5 when it very well could have been a sweep.
At the other end of the ice, the Rangers are looking to stay alive and force a Game 6 at what will be a wild and crazy Madison Square Garden. They have nothing to lose and are simply looking for a way to win one game.
With that in mind, let’s examine what each team needs to do in order to win this evening’s Game 5.
Bruins
For starters, the Bruins’ are going to need the best version of goaltender Tuukka Rask between the pipes.
Rask struggled in Game 4 at MSG and was slow in reacting on two of the goals. It was those two goals that brought the Rangers back to life and have them thinking that they can beat Rask with any kind of shot.
Rask needs to get back to being the goalie he was during the regular season. He was one of the best goaltenders in the league and showed the Bruins that they were going to be more than just fine without Tim Thomas.
Secondly, the Bruins need to stay away from turning over the puck. Ranger forwards are going to be pesky this evening and looking for ways to create scoring opportunities on Rask.
If the Bruins are not careful with the puck, what happened to Zdeno Chara on Thursday night in Game 4 could happen again.
Lastly, the team needs to avoid taking careless penalties. It was a third period bench minor for too many men on the ice that lead to Rangers’ forward Brian Boyle tying the game up at 3-3 with a power play goal.
If the Bruins can do these three things and get the goal scoring with the depth that they have, there should be no reason why they will not be moving onto the Eastern Conference Finals once this game is over.
Rangers
For the Rangers, everything starts and ends with netminder Henrik Lundqvist.
Lundqvist was one of the main reasons why the Rangers were able to win Game 4 and was also a reason why the Rangers might have been able to win Game 3. He may not have gotten off to the best start in this series but right now, his game is almost exactly where he wants it to be and he will be hungry to get back to the Garden for a Game 6.
To win Game 5, the Rangers should also stick with the same lines that they utilized in Game 5. Without Brad Richards in the lineup, the team had four balanced lines with the line of Chris Kreider, Derrick Brassard, and Rick Nash being the team’s best when they needed it the most.
Lastly, the Rangers must take advantage of their scoring opportunities when they get them. While the power play still struggled in Game 4, it did manage to find a way to come through and score the tying goal.
The Rangers have nothing to lose so if they can do all of the above and play a sound road game, they might just be looking at Game 6 on Broadway in front of their fans.
