NEW YORK — For good or ill, these Rangers have figured something out.
They opened their 12th playoff series in the last four years on Saturday afternoon, and if you thought the 2-1 victory over Tampa looked familiar … well, yes, we’ve seen this recipe produce success before.
Control the puck, push the pace, expect fantastic goaltending, play for the bounce. It arrived in the Eastern Conference final opener courtesy of Dominic Moore’s right shin pad, which had a Kevin Hayes centring pass deflect off it and in with just 2:25 left in regulation.
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“We had lots of looks; a couple just before that,” said Moore. “I drove it in front and the puck rolled off my tape. I just tried to stay with it and work for a good bounce, and finally it came.”
Barring something unforeseen this is what the series will look like. In having a record 15 straight playoff games decided by one goal — nine of them by a 2-1 score this spring alone — New York has clearly established a pattern that maximizes success.
The strategy makes perfect sense when you have Henrik Lundqvist locked in this kind of zone. Playing structured and disciplined in front of The King is akin to bringing a bazooka to a knife fight.
“I do think a lot of our offence comes from defending well,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault explained. “Good defence will lead to offence. Against such a skilled and powerhouse offensive team, I think we need to defend.”
And so it is: We know how the Rangers intend to reach their second straight Stanley Cup final.
How does Tampa keep it from happening?
In simple terms, the Lightning can either try and completely disrupt the pattern by opening things up or bet that the combination of Ben Bishop and their own execution is good enough to beat New York at its own game.
It’s an intriguing decision.
Outside of the first period, when the Rangers dominated possession and had more quality scoring chances, there was very little separating the teams in Game 1. A textbook passing play saw Ondrej Palat tie it 1-1 during a third-period power play, but the Lightning failed to convert on two subsequent chances with a man advantage.
Then Moore went hard to the net and was rewarded for his instincts. There’s the margin.
“They make the simple plays,” said Lightning captain Steven Stamkos. “That’s a team that’s well-coached and well-versed for the playoffs. They know what to do in these situations.
“We’re a group that is definitely on that path, and I think the first period was a little wakeup call for us.”
This is bound to be a learning-on-the-fly situation for many in the Lightning dressing room. The team is more than two years younger on average than the Rangers and has only a handful of players who have played this deep in the playoffs: Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Ryan Callahan, Brenden Morrow, Anton Stralman and Brian Boyle, who missed Saturday’s game with an undisclosed injury.
Down the hall, virtually everyone is used to battling into late May.
There is a certain comfort the Rangers have built up by playing in so many of these uncomfortable situations. They exuded that while dispatching Washington in overtime of Game 7 earlier this week, and have become known as a team that is unlikely to beat itself.
“I think it helps us when we’re in that position almost every night that you keep your focus on the right things, and that’s what it comes down to,” said Lundqvist. “We all understand that every play matters throughout the game. We’re that close every game.
“So all the board battles and making the right plays in our own end offensively, it all matters.”
There is absolutely nothing to suggest the Rangers will waver. Ahead 1-0 in a series, or down 3-1, they play the exact same way. This is an extremely polished outfit.
Were you to tune in for the first half of Saturday’s game it would be tempting to label this a candidate for a short series. New York had three forward lines that could skate with Tampa’s stars and seemed to expose the bottom defensive pairing of Andrej Sustr and Matt Carle, which was promptly split up.
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“It was pretty fast-paced … but I don’t think it was too fast,” said Stralman. “We put ourselves in trouble in the first period and made them look really fast.”
“We’ve put some pressure on ourselves for the next game, but it’s something we can handle,” added Hedman.
The response on Monday will give us a pretty good idea if Tampa is up to the task.
