The Rangers Send a Strong Message

That wasn't Louis Domingue between the pipes for the Tampa Bay Lightning last night; nor was it Antti Raanta. That was none other than Andrei Vasilevskiy, last year's Conn Smythe trophy winner, the goaltender universally acknowledged as the finest in the world, and the man who in the last series posted a .981 save percentage against the NHL's number one offense. Well, when the Rangers were done, they wound up scoring twice as many goals in one game as Vasilevskiy allowed in the last four.

To add insult to injury, his "understudy" two hundred feet away stole the show. Igor Shesterkin stopped 37 of 39 shots, or as it's better known around the organization, just another day at the office. The Rangers skated circles around the two-time Stanley Cup champs, who admittedly looked rusty from being off for nine days. They threw their weight around and took advantage of the passing lanes they seldom saw against the Carolina Hurricanes. Artemi Panarin must've felt like a prisoner out on parole with all the freedom he had to maneuver with the puck. His cross-ice pass set up Mika Zibanejad's power play goal that capped off the scoring for the Blueshirts.

It was nice having a laugher for once; it was even nicer having a lead in a series, something the Rangers have failed to do throughout these playoffs. For once, the haters couldn't dismiss what happened on the ice. There were no scrub goalies to take advantage of, no Jacob Trouba hits leading to key players being concussed, no missed penalties leading to game-tying goals. The Rangers played a full sixty minutes of hockey against a legitimate Cup contender and for the better part of the contest were the better team.

New York had six players with two points, eleven with at least one. The top three lines all contributed to the scoring with Filip Chytil leading the way with two goals in the second period; the latter coming off a brilliant cross-ice pass from Alexis Lafreniere that Vasilevskiy had no chance on. Once more, the kid line was the most consistent line on the ice for the Rangers.

Yes, I get it, it was only one game, and yes, that wasn't the Pittsburgh Penguins the Rangers were playing out there; it was the Tampa Bay Lightning, the team looking to become only the fourth team in NHL history to win at least three consecutive Stanley Cups. The Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens and New York Islanders are the other three. The Bolts will almost certainly step up their game Friday night. They will have no choice, because that wasn't the Florida Panthers they were playing out there either. The Puddy Tats, as I wrote ad nauseam, were a deeply flawed team that was destined to fail once the playoffs began. These Rangers are the exact polar opposite of that team: resilient, persistent and determined. They may go down, but not without one helluva fight.

And regarding whether or not that happens, two things are worth noting here. The first has to do with historical trends. According to Stat Boy Steven, since 2000, teams that took a full seven games to dispose of their lower round opponents were 7-0 against teams that swept theirs. Apparently, having all that time off does more harm than good. The second has to do more with the style of play the Lightning employ. Put succinctly, the Rangers enjoy playing that style of hockey. It suits them well. Forwards like Zibanejad and Panarin have more room to create on the rush. That may explain why they went 3-0 against Tampa during the regular season. If I were Jon Cooper, I'd be more worried about the latter than the former. I haven't seen the Rangers this pumped to play an opponent in years. Compared to the Hurricanes, the Lightning are a walk in the park.

Bottom line, this is going to be a long and exciting series; one in which the team that prevails will be the prohibitive favorite to capture the Cup. Buckle up.