New York Rangers

ECSF: Gm 6: NYR-OTT Rangers look to stave off elimination, force Game 7
May 9, 2017, 8:27 AM ET [239 Comments]
Jan Levine
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The Rangers and Senators meet tonight in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference Semifinals at MSG. For New York, it's do-or-die (or use any cliche you want) while for Ottawa, it's a chance to clinch the series and move on to the Eastern Conference Finals for only the third time in their history and first since to 2007 to face either Washington or Pittsburgh. Game 7 will he Thursday night.

Much is being made of the Rangers' history in elimination games. I will highlight that below. But as we saw in Game 7 of the ECF in 2015, once the puck drops, all that history and "experience" goes out the window.

Since the start of the 2012 postseason, the Rangers are 15-5 when facing elimination. In that stretch, New York has come back from 3-1 down twice, came back from 0-2 once and came back from 3-2 down to Ottawa in 2012. Henrik Lundqvist has posted a 1.74 goals-against average and .945 save percentage with two shutouts in those games. That includes a 6-2 record in Game 7s, inclusive of the 2015 loss to Tampa, which came about after a 7-3 win in Game 6 to force the Game Seven.

If you want to carry history a bit further, especially against Ottawa, Shayna Goldman pointed out some symmetries between 2012 and now. "Game 2 of that series went to overtime, like it did in this series. And Kyle Turris scored the game-winning goal in overtime of Game 4 (instead of Game 5 like he did this year). As they did this year, the Senators took Game 5 against in 2012, as well, putting the Rangers’ backs against the wall. But New York responded and took the series in seven games." Of course, Game 6 was on the road and Game 7 at home, the inverse of this year. But can history broadly repeat itself?

To do so, here are my keys:

1) Score first/come out strong

New York has scored first on all five games of this series. Coming into Game 3, a key was to get the crowd engaged early. That occurred naturally from before the National Anthems. But the Rangers kept the crowd engaged by coming out strong and scoring early. They did the same in Game 4. Facing elimination at home against an opponent that likely will want to take the air out of the ball to a certain extent, coming strong will be key, especially if the team can score early.

2) Rev up the power play

Every chance matters tonight. The Rangers power play went 0-for-3 in Game 5 and now is 2-for-20 in the series. They had two goals in Game 3 that came seconds after their power play had ended, but that's not good enough. The man-advantage now is 3-for-35 (8.6 percent) in the playoffs, better only than the Blues (6.9 percent) among any of the 16 teams that qualified.

Those numbers are staggeringly bad. If New York doesn't advance, the powerless play won't be the main reason but a contributing factor. But if they can get at least one tonight, it could potentially at a minimum provide additional breathing room or be the game-winner/tying goal.

3) Forget history/experience, play who is playing better

Much has been made about "experience" by coach Alain Vigneault. Guess what? It has meant nothing and actually been a detriment. So forget the record in elimination games or what others have done in the past, worry about Game 6 only.

That means play who is playing better. If it's Oscar Lindberg or Jesper Fast or Michael Grabner or Jimmy Vesey, ride those players. If it's Brady Skjei and Brendan Smith, play them more. So if Derek Stepan, Chris Kreider, Kevin Hayes, J.T. Miller, Mats Zuccarello and/or Rick Nash aren't having great games, reduce their minutes. The same goes for Dan Girardi or Marc Staal.

Egos and feelings matter little today. Winning is the only thing. Because if not, you will have all offseason to ponder and stew over what could have and likely should have been. Worry about the here and now and not the future.

Play shift-by-shift, minute-by-minute, period-by-period and the rest will take care of itself. Put forth a full effort and we believe the Rangers will be victorious. That said, get out your lucky charms or superstitious trinkets and have them at the ready.

Today, We All Are Rangers!!!