TAMPA, Fla. — These unshakeable New York Rangers, man.
Remarkably comfortable with discomfort. Down but never truly out. Bent like a piece of wet bamboo yet somehow resisting a fatal break.
Oh, and now just one Madison Square Garden win away from another berth in the Stanley Cup final following an emphatic performance that could plant a seed of doubt in the minds of the young Tampa Bay Lightning.
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“We’re one step closer to our goal,” Rangers centre Derick Brassard said after a five-point, three-goal night.
My goodness what an Eastern Conference final this has been. You never know quite what you’re going to get. The scores so far: 2-1, 6-2, 6-5, 6-2, 2-0 and 7-3.
The latest surprise arrived Tuesday at the beginning of the third period. Tampa had been controlling play while trying to dig out of a 2-1 hole when all of a sudden the Rangers came to life.
With ominous thunder from an outside storm echoing through Amalie Arena, J.T. Miller slammed home a pass after a ridiculous sprawling Ben Bishop save before James Sheppard banged in a rebound three minutes later. By the time Brassard scored at 7:14 to make it 5-1 the Rangers were ahead 8-0 on the shots clock.
“With our season on the line, we probably played our best period of this series so far,” said coach Alain Vigneault. “So we wanted a chance, and we’ve got a chance.”
That will come Friday night at Madison Square Garden, where New York has never been beaten in a Game 7. They are 7-0 at home in those situations all-time.
Yes, the Lightning are facing a momentous task.
“How do I think we’re going to respond?” asked coach Jon Cooper, rhetorically. “We’re going to respond the same way we have every time our backs are against the wall. You’ve watched it happen all year. You know how they’ll come out.”
Tampa has already won two road games in this series, including a stifling performance in Game 5 that came on the heels of a 5-1 loss at home. The team has now played 101 games this season without dropping more than two in a row.
Yet, it has been inconsistent this spring, with veteran defenceman Anton Stralman presciently noting before Tuesday’s game: “You have seen a lot of different Tampa Bay Lightnings throughout these playoffs. A lot of different games, a lot of weird games.”
With a chance to reach the Stanley Cup final for the second time in franchise history, this was one of the latter.
Were it not for a standout performance by Henrik Lundqvist — stop us if you’ve heard that before — Tampa could have been protecting a lead rather than chasing the game in the third period. Ryan Callahan put a dangerous shot off the shaft of his stick, Steven Stamkos had a golden opportunity denied by his left pad and Brian Boyle fired a one-timer off the rush into his right one.
Then, when the final period began, New York took control. The Lightning repeatedly turned the puck over and eventually saw rookie Andrei Vasilevskiy sent in for Bishop.
“It just happened,” said Lundqvist. “They’re a high-risk, sometimes high-reward (team), but when they over-forecheck or overcommit to certain situations we took advantage of that in the third. They can score, but they can also make mistakes and they’ve done that in this game and when we played (Game 4) here because they’re so aggressive sometimes.
“It’s a fine line there; they can definitely score but I think we took advantage of some misplays in the third and kind of killed the game.”
The two days off will be key before the deciding game. Both teams are nursing plenty of bumps and bruises, and a flu bug has gone through the Lightning dressing room.
Video will no doubt be dissected and rewatched — “Yeah, I don’t want to watch that,” Bishop quipped — and Tampa is going to spend a lot of time discussing the need to better protect its own net.
“For our team, as a group, we’ve never been this far before,” said Cooper. “So it’s just more lessons learned, and sometimes you have to go to the school of hard knocks to find out what works and what doesn’t. …
“We showed if we’re not going to play the proper way, a really, really good hockey team is going to beat you.”
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There is much less mystery about what to expect from the Rangers.
This is their 12th playoff series in the last four years and they’ve gone an amazing 15-3 in elimination games since 2012. That’s why Game 6 here felt like nothing more than a routine business trip.
“We’ve got a lot of guys that thrive in that situation,” said defenceman Marc Staal. “We were pretty business-like this morning, a little quieter than normal, we knew what we had to do.”
Lundqvist, in particular, found his focus.
He’s got a .956 save percentage in those last 18 elimination games and will attempt to improve on that mark in yet another Game 7 at MSG.
“It’s the best,” said Lundqvist. “It’s really the best feeling. Even though it’s a lot of adrenaline and pressure and you’re nervous going into these games, you have to enjoy it.”
They almost always do.