RANGERS' SEASON COMES TO SCREECHING HALT -- OUSTED BY OTTAWA
RANGERS' SEASON COMES TO SCREECHING HALT -- OUSTED BY OTTAWA
By: Matthew Blittner
RIP -- Here lies the NY Rangers' 2016-17 season and their hopes of winning the Crème de la crème of sports hardware -- The Stanley Cup.
In the last 76 years, the Rangers have won exactly one Stanley Cup, and that was 23-years ago at this point!
On Tuesday night, May 9th, 2017, the Rangers fell to the Ottawa Senators in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, or for the fans who remember such a thing, the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. "They went out, not with a bang, but with a whimper."
If the Stanley Cup playoffs are a boxing match, then the Rangers have been KO'ed in the second round, and by a lesser opponent no less.
Not to take anything away from Ottawa, they made the plays when it mattered most, and of course had some good puck luck, as they are a team deserving of moving on in this heart-wrenching tournament.
However, with their experience of the past five seasons behind them, as well as their regular season points totals, it was clear from the start that this was a series the Rangers should win.
Alas, should win and do win are two completely different things, and Ottawa proved it, by winning Game 5 on home ice and then finishing off their opponents in their opponents own house. In Game 6, Ottawa showed the type of killer instinct that is needed at this time of year, and rather than let the Rangers hang around and potentially force a Do-Or-Die Game 7, they stepped on the Rangers collective throats and snuffed out the Blueshirts' postseason lives.
When Ottawa scored just 4:27 into the game, thanks to a deflection off the stick of Mike Hoffman, you knew that it was going to be a long night for the home team, and it was.
At 14:44 of the opening frame, Ottawa would tack on another goal as Mark Stone took advantage of the Rangers' lackadaisical defense and of an overly jittery Henrik Lundqvist to put the Senators up 2-0.
A brief pushback by the Rangers in the middle period saw them pull to within one, when Mats Zuccarello found a streaking Mika Zibanejad for the Blueshirts' first goal, thereby cutting the Ottawa lead to 2-1 at 13:32 of the period.
Unfortunately, Henrik Lundqvist and the Dcore were not on their game, as they allowed Ottawa to come right back as Erik Karlsson restored the 2-goal lead with a snipe past Hank at 15:53 of the second period.
That goal essentially took the life out of the Rangers and their fans.
With just 20 minutes left in their season, the Blueshirts FINALLY woke up in the third and final period as Chris Kreider would score off a breakaway just 53 seconds into the frame to restore life to The Garden crowd and to his teammates.
From there, it was mostly Rangers as they outshot Ottawa 15-5 over the final 20 minutes, but they just could not come up with the tying-goal.
And then it was over. The final horn sounded and the Ottawa Senators were moving on to the Eastern Conference Finals, while the Blueshirts were sent packing, their season over way too soon. And it was only fitting, with the way the series went, that the final nail in the Blueshirts' coffin was an empty-netter curtesy of Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who was nothing short of a Ranger killer in the series.
Many will blame the series loss on the late game decisions of coach Alain Vigneault. While others will blame the subpar play of Henrik Lundqvist. Others still, will look at the team's inability to hold a lead in 6-on-5 situations, or to a leaky Dcore that badly needs an upgrade, or to an offensive support cast that saw all its' big gun disappear when the lights were brightest.
A confluence of factors combined to kill the Rangers' season, and all that matters now, is that it's over and that the Blueshirts' high command takes a look at this team and hopefully makes the correct decisions on how to fix it, as they will once again begin their quest for Lord Stanley's fabled chalice in just a few months, (preseason starts in September). And let's not forget, the NHL Entry Draft is June 23-24 in Chicago, where the Rangers will look to add to their already impressive collection of young players. On the flip side, they will also lose one player by rule in the Expansion Draft on June 21st as the brand new Vegas Golden Knights need to fill out their roster as they become the 31st team in the NHL.
Should be an interesting summer Blueshirts fans, but don't fret, because the season never truly ends, rather a new one begins.
Well said. I don't blame Hank, but our D absolutely needs an upgrade. I wouldn't be surprised to see AV replaced. It seems like every crucial moment the Rangers find themselves in they get outmuscled and don't seem motivated enough. They jusyt don't seem like they want it as bad as our opponents when their backs against the wall. We've seen what the ranger can do when they want it, but your true colors surface when in dispair. Hopefully we can get someone to sustain our play at or close to our potential. To lose to a tema that lead for a total of about 45 minutes throughout a series is absurd. They need to play with the same grit up a goal than down a goal. AV could not get them there.
ReplyDeleteAll well said Mike. AV likely don't be fired unless a player revolt similar to Tort's departure happens. Assistant coaches minus goalie coach are fair game though. Player wise should be interesting cause of expansion draft. So got something's to keep an eye on.
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