Season suddenly comes down to a best-of-three
After 96 games and eight months of hockey, it comes down to this for the Rangers.
Three games, potentially two at Madison Square Garden, needing two wins.
Two victories from a return to the Stanley Cup Final. It won’t be easy against the forceful and physical Panthers, who have been the better team in three of the contests, who thoroughly outplayed the Rangers in the two contests down in Florida, nearly doubling them up in shots on goal, 76-39.
But now the Eastern Conference Final shifts back to Broadway, where the Rangers are 5-2 this postseason and a conference-best 30-11-0 during the regular season.
“Generally, there’s a lot we can be better at with our game, and we’re going to need to,” coach Peter Laviolette said Wednesday. “I thought we played better at home than we did on the road, and we were able to get an overtime win in Game 3, and set it up now for a best-of-three going back to our building.”
“I like our chances going back home, I like the way we play there,” Braden Schneider added. “Next one’s a big one.”
More than just a friendly crowd will be needed, starting Thursday night. The Rangers need more from their stars not named Igor Shesterkin. Chris Kreider doesn’t have a point in this series after producing 10 in the first two rounds. The same can be said of Mika Zibanejad, whose giveaway led to the Blake Wheeler hooking penalty and Sam Reinhart Game 4 game-winner. Artemi Panarin has three assists, but hasn’t found the back of the net since Game 3 of the previous series against the Hurricanes.
They need to play less on their heels, and avoid spending so much time in their own end. So much has been asked of Shesterkin this series, almost an unfair amount. The Rangers know they can’t keep going to that well if they want to advance. They need more of that first period on Tuesday, when they were the aggressor, and less of what followed. Laviolette didn’t have an answer for the drop-off, but everyone in blue agreed the second and third periods weren’t good enough.
“It’s been spurts where we’ve really liked our game, and spurts where we’ve been on our heels a little too much,” Adam Fox said. “Some positives, for sure, but definitely can be a lot better as a whole.”
Laviolette was predictably mum on any potential lineup changes on Wednesday. In Game 4, Filip Chytil was a scratch, replaced by Wheeler. The Rangers say Chytil is healthy, that the team is merely looking to manage his workload after his six-month-plus layoff from game action with a suspected concussion. He had played in the first three games of the series.
“There’s been times when I think he’s been really noticeable with his game, with his size, his speed, his skill,” Laviolette said. “But, again, he’s working against six months off trying to get back and we’re just making sure we’re giving him the best chance to be successful.”
Wheeler was heavily involved in Tuesday’s final result, taking the illfated hooking penalty that prevented an Aleksander Barkov breakaway in his first action since suffering a gruesome leg injury on Feb. 15.
“I’ve replayed it a million times between [Tuesday] night and this morning and I own that play,” Wheeler said. “If I had to do it all over again, I would do the same thing.”
Of course, one play doesn’t decide the series, and it didn’t decide Game 4. While the Rangers would’ve liked to play better down South, they still accomplished their goal in reclaiming home-ice advantage.
“If you say before the trip, you’re going to come back and split, I think we [would’ve been] happy with that,” Fox said. “But obviously we wanted to get that third one and come back with a 3-1 lead. Just back on home ice next game and respond.”