Rangers Get Just Enough

Gerard Gallant had seen enough. Through the first two games of this best of seven series with the Carolina Hurricanes, his team had managed just one goal. At the rate things were going, the Rangers were looking at a four-game sweep. Clearly something had to be done. So he shook up his top three lines. The new lines were as follows: Mika Zibanejad centering Chris Kreider and Filip Chytil; Ryan Strome centering Artemi Panarin and Kaapo Kakko; and Andrew Copp centering Alexis Lafreniere and Frank Vatrano.

An offensive onslaught it wasn't. But then in a series where goals have been as rare as an honest salesman in a used-car lot, anything was better than nothing. The Rangers skated with authority, took more chances in the offensive zone and, yes, surrendered more than their fair share of chances the other way. Thru two periods, the Hurricanes outshot the Blueshirts 35-23. But Igor Shesterkin stood tall in net, stopping all but one, while Zibanejad scored a power play goal in the first and Kreider padded the lead early in the second to give New York its first two goal lead of the series. An empty netter by Tyler Motte late in the third sealed the deal.

We now have a series; a series that will test the Rangers mettle in ways they could only imagine. Before the series began, I wrote that the Hurricanes were the worst possible matchup for this team. Well they played what was arguably their best game of the playoffs and they still needed everyone of Shesterkin's 43 saves to preserve the win. Things will only get tougher from here on out, you can count on that.

This is the assignment the Rangers have drawn; a seemingly impossible assignment, but one they seem more than eager to take on. And if they somehow manage to tie this series on Tuesday, they will at the very least succeed in forcing the Canes to defend their home ice advantage. Of course, should they lose, they face the dire prospect of going home for the season on Thursday.

To have any chance at advancing to the conference finals, the Rangers MUST win the special teams battle. Apart from Shesterkin, it's the one area in which they enjoy an advantage. Throughout the regular season, they posted the fourth best power play in the NHL, while the Hurricanes were only the thirteenth best. So far, Carolina has been a woeful 0 for 7 in this series and 5 for 43 overall in the postseason. If the Rangers can covert with the extra man, they will have a fighting chance.

And if the Hurricanes try and goad the Rangers into physical altercations, as both Max Domi and Tony DeAngelo did at the end of game three, that will only be playing into the Rangers hands. The Canes maybe the faster team in this series, but they are clearly not the bigger one. I doubt Rod Brind'Amour would be dumb enough to allow that, but in the event he does or can't stop it, expect Gerard Gallant to say, "Thank you."

This season has been full of surprises. If the Rangers can pull off a few more, who knows where they might end up?