Henrik Lundqvist – Keefe To The City

Feb 17, 2016

Podcast: Ryan Brandell

The Barstool Sports Blackhawks blogger joined me to talk about the defending champs, as well as the Cubs and The Bachelor.

The last time the Rangers and Blackhawks met was way back on Oct. 7 on Opening Night in the NHL. The Rangers won that game 3-2 in Chicago in what was a look at what could have been last June in the Stanley Cup Final if the Rangers had won Game 7 at home against the Lightning. After back-to-back seasons of nearly missing out on a Rangers-Blackhawks Final, maybe this is the year we finally get it.

Ryan Brandell of Barstool Sports Chicago (known as “Chief” on that site), joined me to talk about if the regular season is boring for Blackhawks fans, ex-Rangers winning the Cup in Chicago, which teams Blackhawks fans should be scared of in the playoffs and the teams that have no chance of reaching the conference finals. We also talked about the state of the Cubs and The Bachelor.

Podcasts • Rangers

Feb 16, 2016

Podcast: 610 Barstool Sports New York

The Barstool Sports New York blogger joined me to talk about everything Rangers and the Henrik Lundqvist era.

Henrik Lundqvist is back. After a rough stretch that made it look like the 76 playoff games over the last four seasons were starting to catch up with the King. After missing out on the All-Star Game, Lundqvist has returned to his old self with wins in eight of his last 10 starts and just 18 goals against in those 10 games. For the 11th straight season, the Rangers go as Henrik Lundqvist go, and right now, everything is going well.

610 of Barstool Sports New York joined me to talk about Dylan McIlrath avenging Wayne Simmonds’ punch to Ryan McDonagh’s jaw, the slumps of Chris Kreider, Kevin Hayes and Derek Stepan, the odd use of Keith Yandle by Alain Vigneault, the play of Dan Girardi and Marc Staal, the Henrik Lundqvist era in its 11th season and which teams should scare Rangers fans for the playoffs.

Blogs • Rangers

Feb 15, 2016

The Return of the 2015-16 Rangers

Every Rangers-Flyers game feels big, but Sunday’s Rangers-Flyers game felt a little bigger. It felt a little different than normal and a little more important than usual.

Every Rangers-Flyers game feels big, but Sunday’s Rangers-Flyers game felt a little bigger. It felt a little different than normal and a little more important than usual. The moments leading up to the start of the game felt like something out of April or May and the first minutes after the puck dropped felt like something out of the ’90s.

NBC Sports built up the storyline of Wayne Simmonds dropping Ryan McDonagh and putting the Rangers’ captain in the press box for the foreseeable future and used a conversation between Dylan McIlrath and Simmonds during warmups like a movie trailer. Outside of watching Matt Damon return as Jason Bourne during Super Bowl 50, I can’t recall the last trailer that made me feel the way I did as I watched the red line serve as the linesman for McIlrath and Simmonds during warmups.

Tanner Glass had made the comments earlier in the week defending his captain when he said, “You just have to let [Simmonds] know that that’s not going to be tolerated. [McDonagh’s] our captain, he’s our best player, [Simmonds] can’t do that. He’ll know. He’ll know.” But here was the 23-year-old defenseman, who would still be in the press box watching games if not for Simmonds connecting with McDonagh’s jaw, taking it upon himself to act in a way Alain Vigneault’s teams haven’t acted in the past.

With the Madison Square Garden crowd booing Simmonds’ first shift of the night and Alain Vigneault and Ulf Samuelsson giving McIlrath the green light to hit the ice and challenge Simmonds, it only took 39 seconds for McIlrath to make Simmonds atone for his punch. It took 17 seconds from the time McIlrath and Simmonds dropped their gloves until the first punch was thrown, and 50 seconds after that, the linesmen broke them up.

McIlrath had a job to do and he did it, and even Simmonds, for as hated as he is by Rangers fans, had a job to do and he did it. He didn’t back down from McIlrath’s pregame challenge, knowing if not McIlrath, then Glass would be after him, and if he didn’t agree to go, one of the two would make him go. Simmonds answered the bell for putting McDonagh on the shelf, and as a hockey fan, you have to respect Simmonds’ respect for the situation. He’s still the perfect Flyer, but if he were a Ranger, he’d be the fan favorite in New York that he is in Philadelphia.

Seconds after Simmonds going to the box, screaming and shouting like a maniac, which is pretty much what one has to be to stand toe-to-toe with no visor against the half-shielded protected McIlrath and his three-inch and 30-pound advantage, Glass hit the ice with pent-up adrenaline and his chance to make goods on his comments. Glass went with the next best thing, running down Radko Gudas in the far corner and then immediately turning to drop the gloves with a more-than-willing Ryan White. Twenty seconds after the game stopped for McIlrath-Simmonds, it stopped once again for Glass and White to go. With 19:01 left in the first, and McIlrath, Glass, Simmonds and White in the box, and everything from eight days ago seemingly taken care of, the actual game could begin.

It was nearly a full game of domination from the Rangers. Whether it be from the energy created by McIlrath or Glass in the opening minute, or the simple fact that the Rangers are just a vastly superior team to the Flyers, or a combination of both, the Rangers not getting two points was never in question. For nearly a month now, the Rangers have looked like one of the best teams in the league, the same way they looked like a contender when they ripped off nine-straight wins in October and November and started the season 16-3-2. And to think, they’re doing it without their best offensive weapon and best defensive defenseman.

Derick Brassard was able to pull off the extra-long wraparound attempt on Steve Mason, who seemed to be the only person in the Garden and watching on TV, who didn’t anticipate Brassard’s eventual move with a full head of steam and no real passing lane. It was Brassard’s 19th of the season, tying a career high he set last season, as he continues to be the Rangers’ best scoring option not named Rick Nash.

Derek Stepan, who you would think would be the Rangers’ best scoring option not named Rick Nash, did what he does best, scoring a pair of a goals on wide-open nets, which seem to the be the only way he can score, for his 11th and 12th on the season. With eight goals needed and only 26 games to play, it’s going to take a Nash-like hot streak for Stepan to have just his second 20-goal season in six years, in what will unfortunately be another disappointing offensive season for the center.

And the man who helped save the Rangers’ season when it looked like it might unravel and when certain New York hockey writers called the team “done” played like his usual self. After having his first game off in nearly a month on Friday against the Kings, and just his second game off since Dec. 12, Henrik Lundqvist held the Flyers scoreless for 59 minutes and 50 seconds before a 6-on-4 garbage-time goal denied him of his second straight shutout.

Henrik Lundqvist has been the New York Rangers since 2007-08. (You could make the case for him being the team in 2005-06 and 2006-07 as well, but those were still Jaromir Jagr’s teams. At worst, he and Jagr were the co-New York Rangers for those two years.) And once again, he still is. During the Rangers’ recent resurgence, which started on Jan. 19 against Vancouver, the Rangers have gone 8-2-0 with Lundqvist in net, and he has allowed 18 goals in those 10 games. Lundqvist’s return to Vezina-esque status and him turning on his postseason switch a little early, stopped a nightmarish collapse as the Rangers have started to create separation between them and the rest of the non-Capitals Met teams and wild-card contenders.

The highly-coveted two points available on Sunday might have been an afterthought during the opening 59 seconds of the game, but after that, the Rangers did what they have done nearly every game for the last month: win. With Sunday night’s win, their second-place cushion in the Met got a little bigger and their lead to avoid the wild card and a potential matchup with the Capitals grew a little larger.

Watching McIlrath make Simmonds answer for his Feb. 8 punch was enjoyable, but earning those two points, helping keep the Flyers out of the postseason again and having the Rangers increase their own chances of making it is what really matters.

Podcasts • Rangers

Oct 7, 2015

Podcast: Ryan Brandell

The Barstool Sports Blackhawks blogger joined me to talk about Rangers-Blackhawks.

Hockey is back and the Rangers are back. After what felt like an incredibly short three-plus month offseason following the Rangers’ Game 7 loss in the Eastern Conference finals, the Rangers begin the 2015-16 season on Wednesday night in Chicago where the Blackhawks will raise their Stanley Cup banner.

Ryan Brandell of Barstool Sports Chicago (known as “Chief” on that site), joined me to talk about the Blackhawks winning the Cup for the third time in six years, how you get through the regular season when you’re used to winning in the postseason, the turnover of the Blackhawks’ roster, how the city will watch the banner raised along with the Cubs’ wild-card game and the current sports landscape in Chicago.

Podcasts • Rangers

Jun 4, 2015

Podcast: Brian Monzo

The Rangers’ season came to a devastating end in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals and now it’s time to look back at the season and ahead to next season.

It’s been nearly a week since the Rangers’ season ended with a Game 7 loss in the Eastern Conference finals and the finality of the Presidents’ Trophy-winning season is still devastating. Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final was on Wednesday night and to catch a glimpse of a Rangers-less Final only made the young offseason that much more depressing.

WFAN Mike’s On: Francesa on the FAN producer Brian Monzo joined me to talk about the 2014-15 Rangers, what went wrong in Game 7 against the Lightning, how the Rangers can get over the hump and win the Stanley Cup and what moves the team should make this offseason.

Podcasts • Rangers

May 29, 2015

Podcast: 610 Barstool Sports New York

The Rangers have become familiar with Game 7 and now they will play one for a chance to go back to the Stanley Cup Final for a second straight year.

Another Game 7. Sixteen days after winning a Game 7 against the Capitals, the Rangers are back in the same spot: Game 7 at Madison Square Garden. The difference is this time it’s for a trip to the Stanley Cup Final and a chance to finish the job they started last year.

610 of Barstool Sports New York joined me to talk about what the confidence level should be for Rangers fans for Game 7, how coaching and experience will factor into the game and if anything other than winning the Stanley Cup means the season is a disappointment.

Podcasts • Rangers

May 28, 2015

Podcast: Adam Herman

The Rangers have never lost a Game 7 at Madison Square Garden in the team’s history and that trend will need to continue against the Lightning.

The Rangers are one win away from returning to the Stanley Cup Final for the second straight year and that win will have to come in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Lightning. The Rangers have been unpredictable so far in this series and haven’t played their best at home, but they have also never lost a Game 7 at the Garden in the team’s history.

Adam Herman of Blueshirt Banter joined me to talk about Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, the unpredictable efforts from the Rangers in the series, the lazy rhetoric about Henrik Lundqvist needing to win the Cup and Rick Nash’s postseason performance.

Blogs • Rangers

May 26, 2015

The Rangers Will Win Game 6

The Rangers will win Game 6 against the Lightning because this season isn’t supposed to end in Tampa Bay in the Eastern Conference finals.

I have never panicked when it comes to this Rangers’ season. I have worried about it. Well, I worried once about it. I worried about this Rangers’ season with 1:42 left in Game 5 against the Capitals. The Rangers had scored one goal in Games 3 and 4 combined and were being shut out once again Game 5. There were only 102 seconds left in the season for them to save their season, but luckily, they did with 101 seconds left in the game. After that game, I never felt worried again in the series. Not in Game 6 and not in Game 7 and I certainly never panicked.

After the Rangers’ Game 3 loss to the Lightning, it felt like every Rangers fan believed the season was over, the same way most did after Game 4 against the Capitals and Game 4 against the Penguins last season. Sure, in Game 3, the Rangers had blown a two-goal lead just like they had in the 2013-14 Stanley Cup Final, and after overcoming a two-goal deficit of their own in the same game, they lost in overtime. No one wanted to stop and think that if they won Game 4, they would be right where they needed to be with a split in Tampa Bay, and it would be the same result as winning Game 3 and losing Game 4, everyone just wanted to give their instant analysis that the Rangers were done because no Stanley Cup champion has ever lost a game in the playoffs or trailed in a series.

The blame game started with Henrik Lundqvist on Wednesday night because it was Lundqvist who had allowed the long overtime goal from Nikita Kucherov, which happened about a minute after Lundqvist had stopped a J.T. Brown breakaway (Lundqvist would have been better off letting the breakaway attempt in and losing then). Rick Nash’s postseason effort was once again called into question following another scoreless game and Martin St. Louis’ decline was brought to the forefront. No one cared to wonder why the Rangers’ defense was allowing odd-man rushes seemingly every time down the ice, the loss was all on Lundqvist and Nash and St. Louis. The loss was on the stars.

There was nothing to complain about after Game 4 when Lundqvist allowed just one goal on 39 shots (the Rangers only had 24 shots), Nash scored twice and St. Louis scored for the first time this postseason in a 5-1 win. Everything was happy in New York (I mean Rangerstown). There was nothing to complain about for 48 hours with a home game in Game 5 on tap and the Rangers coming off their most impressive game of the postseason.

Sunday’s Game 5 was the worst imaginable performance from the Rangers given the point in the series, the setting for the game and their effort in the previous game. Coming off their most impressive win of the playoffs just two days earlier, the game we saw from the Rangers on Sunday night wasn’t even a possibility in my mind. How could that Rangers team in Tampa Bay on Friday night be the same Rangers team two nights later in New York? How could the team that had scored nine goals in two games against Ben Bishop and the Lightning defense, not score in a pivotal Game 5 at home, and not even not score, but not even come close to scoring?

It didn’t matter that Lundqvist stood on his head again and the only two pucks that got by him were because of the Rangers’ defense allowing a deep 3-on-2 to and somehow allowing arguably the best pure goal scorer in the WORLD to sit wide open at the top of the crease on the power play.

Game 5 felt like any Rangers playoff game from 2004-05 to 2011-12 where scoring once felt impossible and scoring twice was impossible. And like those postseasons, even if Lundqvist were actually superhuman and could have stopped all of the Lightning’s shots and denied all of their wide-open, in-the-slot scoring chances, the Rangers would have lost eventually. They weren’t scoring on Sunday night if that game was played for another period or another four hours.

I thought the Eastern Conference finals run in 2011-12 meant the future would mean no more wondering which Rangers team would show up on a given night, but then in 2012-13, the same old Rangers showed up against the Bruins in the second round. And after last year’s improbable Final run I thought, “OK, now I really won’t have to worry about which Rangers team will show up in the future,” but that’s clearly not the case after Sunday’s embarrassment.

The Rangers never make things easy and they weren’t about to start in this series against the Lightning. This team has successfully handled every form of adversity they have been dealt this season and have played with the finality of the end of the season three times and won every time, and now they need to do it for a fourth time (and then a fifth).

Tonight will be the Rangers’ 100th game this season and it could be the last. Tomorrow could be Day 1 off a four-plus month offseason and the first day of another summer of wondering when Rangers fans will stop having to live off the moments of the 1993-94 playoffs. But it won’t be.

I didn’t panic when the Rangers lost Game 2 at home to the Penguins or when they lost Game 1 to the Capitals or when they trailed 3-1 in the series. I didn’t panic when they were run out of MSG in Game 2 against the Lightning or when they blew Game 3, and I’m not going to panic now even after the most miserable effort in the biggest game of the 2014-15 season. The Rangers will win Game 6. They have to.

Blogs • Email Exchanges • Rangers

May 15, 2015

Rangers-Lightning Features Familiar Foes

The Rangers will not only face the Lightning in the Eastern Conference finals, but they will also face a group of former Rangers looking to end their former team’s season.

After the Rangers’ Game 7 win over the Capitals, I was ready for the Eastern Conference finals to start right after the handshake line. I didn’t think I would sleep between Wednesday night’s Game 7 and Saturday afternoon’s Game 1 and wanted the next round to start immediately. Thankfully, there’s just a two-day layoff between series and the Rangers can keep their momentous run alive.

With the Rangers and Lightning meeting in the Eastern Conference finals, John Fontana of Raw Charge joined me to talk about the Ryan Callahan-Martin St. Louis trade, former Rangers Brian Boyle and Anton Stralman playing for the Lightning and what to expect in the series.

Keefe: The Ryan Callahan-Martin St. Louis trade last season was the biggest non-Stanley Cup Final storyline of the 2013-14 Rangers’ season. The Rangers traded their 28-year-old captain for a 38-year-old former MVP because Callahan and his agent overpriced himself out of New York and because St. Louis wanted out of Tampa Bay and wanted to be close to his Greenwich, Conn. home.

So many Rangers fans were devastated that the homegrown Callahan was leaving and it seemed like fans were split 50/50 on liking and not liking the trade. I loved the trade for the Rangers and thought it was necessary.

Callahan had started negotiations with the Rangers at eight years, $60 million, overvaluing himself and overvaluing the “C” on his jersey as a player who had never scored 30 goals in a season. I didn’t get why Rangers were upset at all once he left because it was his choice to leave. He wasn’t willing to compromise with the Rangers and even as Glen Sather stupidly came closer and closer to Callahan’s demands, it wasn’t enough for the secondary scoring option. Ryan Callahan could still be a Ranger if he wanted to be and no one should feel bad for him.

What are your feelings about Callahan after watching him play 97 regular-season games and 16 postseason games for the Lightning?

Fontana: Before we begin, that’s a painful trade in Lightning history because of what was going on with the face of the franchise. Martin St. Louis didn’t like the changing scene in Tampa.

Let’s be fair here; Slats gave up on negotiations with how many months before free agency started? And the contract Callahan agreed to from the Lightning was something like a few hundred thousand dollars less than Sather’s last offer in New York. While the numbers you presented are certainly too much for Cally, there is the “C” and status with the club that propped him up on a negotiating angle.

At the same time, he’s still getting what comes off as more than he should for his toolsy, responsible game. He’s been playing first line wing with Steven Stamkos centering him and he’s put up a career high in points this season. While I like his game, his locker room presence and what he he’s doing on ice, the contract is still waaaay big. Fans down here in general like him too.

Keefe: On the other end of the trade, the Rangers acquired the captain and face of the Lightning in St. Louis, who was instrumental in helping the Rangers reach the Cup Final for the first time since 1993-94. With Callahan and without St. Louis, the Rangers don’t win the East last year.

For you, I can’t imagine what it was like to have a 13-year-old Lightning, captain and face of the franchise demand to be traded and then be traded to his place of choice at the deadline with the team in the middle of a playoff run.

What was it like to see St. Louis traded? Is is still weird to see him play for another team?

Fontana: There’s a lot to be said here. As a fan alone I reflect on that as the end of an era with this team. As a blogger and a blog manager there’s another degree with what went down with Marty that fans (Rangers or Lightning fans) wouldn’t necessarily think of — having to cover it, talk about it, write about it, try to understand it and more than a year later it still isn’t settled because the reasons keep being twisted for why he wanted out.

I could link to articles I’ve written since February 2014 through Thursday, May 14 that touch on this. It’s a sore spot. Marty’s handling it from start to finish has made it worse to have to reflect on and not just put to rest. This, having to come back to it all, is the downside of the entire series. While I expect New York fans to react warmly to Callahan’s return to Madison Square Garden (or Brian Boyle, or Anton Stralman), Marty is going to see a mixed reaction. We have such good memories of the man and how things transpired to end it all (and some spoken words by him since leaving) defile them a bit; we don’t want to remember St. Louis just because of the trade request and how it played out.

Some fans have moved past him and care more about Cally’s status for Game 1 and the series in general compared to having to deal with Marty again. Others, like me, have feelings renewed: Anger, disappointment, and surprise.

Keefe: Every season there is a target of mine in columns, podcasts and on Twitter and for nearly his entire Rangers tenure, Brian Boyle was that guy. I never understood the fans who liked Boyle as a former first-round pick whose career became as a fourth-line role player and when the Rangers didn’t re-sign him last offseason I was ecstatic. Now had I known that the Rangers were going to waste money on Tanner Glass, I would have gladly had Boyle back, but oh well.

Boyle recorded his second-highest goal total of his career with 15 in a full 82-game season for the Lightning and has chipped in with one this postseason. A lot of Rangers fans have forgotten about his weaknesses as a player now that he is in Tampa Bay and just see him helping out a team that has reached the Eastern Conference finals.

What are your thoughts on Boyle?

Fontana: Boyle’s been able to fit in just about anywhere he’s been asked. He has seen a lot of time on the fourth line but how Tampa Bay approaches fourth-liners isn’t the traditional grind-grind-grind limited, physical aspect. He’s been a standard-bearer on the penalty kill which Ranger fansx should be aware of. But his presence has been elsewhere too — he’s done third-line center time, he’s layed on the wing. He’s played on the power play as the guy near the crease. He’s not an offensive force, but he’s a presence.

Keefe: Aside from not wanting Boyle back last offseason, I also didn’t want Benoit Pouliot back and Edmonton signed him and I didn’t want Stralman back because I thought it would take overpaying for him to get him back. That one I wish I could take back.

After looking nothing like an NHL defenseman for long stretches with the Rangers and forcing fans to call for Raphael Diaz to be inserted into the lineup over him frequently last season, Stralman has come into his own with the Lightning and finally reverted back to being more of an offensive defenseman.

How has Stralman fit in with the Lightning?

Fontana: To keep this one short and direct: Norris Trophy candidate worthy to the point I don’t understand one iota why he wasn’t even offered a contract by the Rangers. He’s been in the lineup while hurt and still was the solid guy on the back end. He’s stabilized and improved everyone he’s played with.

No, he’s not a Norris finalist in 2015, but he’s been an unspoken MVP on the Tampa Bay roster.

Keefe: Dan Boyle was a highly-coveted free agent and took less money to be a Ranger. The former star and Lightning defenseman was supposed to provide consistent offense to the Rangers’ defense and captain what has been an embarrassing power play. But in the first year of his two-year deal with the Rangers, Boyle has been a liability in his own zone and hasn’t done much to help the Rangers’ power play. I guess I just need to accept that the Rangers’ power play will never be good.

Like St. Louis, what’s it like to now have to root against Boyle?

Fontana: Dan Boyle’s departure from Tampa Bay isn’t comparable to how things went down with Marty. Of course it’s also been seven seasons ince the one of the worst trades in franchise history went down and Boyle (who had been freshly re-signed before the 2008 trade deadline) was forced out by one of the egomaniac new owners of the Lightning — a former teammate of Boyle’s, Len Barrie.

Time and distance have literally and figuratively passed (he was in San Jose, so he didn’t haunt us. Long time fans like myself like the guy, respect him and all that. But we’re used to him as an opponent.

Keefe: This series scares me more than those two series because the Lightning are nothing like the Rangers and don’t experience the offensive slumps the Rangers do. The Lightning won all there games against the Rangers in the regular season, but those games came very early in the season before the Rangers are the team they are now and the team they became in the second week of December.

Losing this series will not only be devastating because it will mean the Rangers fell short of getting back to the Final and winning the Cup, but it will mean Callahan, Boyle and Stralman will be playing in the Final with a chance to win the Cup.

Henrik Lundqvist has the ability to be the difference in this series the way he was against the Penguins and the way he was in Games 5, 6 and 7 against the Capitals in the Rangers’ comeback and I will never not believe in the King.

I predicted the Rangers to beat the Penguins in six and the Capitals in six. I was wrong both times, but the actual result worked out both times, so let’s make it a three-peat. Rangers over Lightning in six.

What’s your prediction?

Fontana: I have a belief that I’ve tried to restate when and where I can that I don’t believe the season means a thing at this point. What’s done is done. Way to go Lightning, rah-rah-rah King Henrik, etc.

Over, done with, moot. What Tampa Bay did against the Rangers in November, what they’ve done against Detroit and Montreal have no bearing on the Rangers. What the Rags did against Pittsburgh and against the Capitals are in the past (and the Presidents’ Trophy amounts to a scheduling object). We know what our teams are capable of when they’re playing their A-game. We know how ugly or painful it can be when they just show up to the gunfight with knives instead.

That being said, youth is on Tampa Bay’s side as is speed. They’re more than capable on the penalty kill but have struggled during the season and playoffs on the power play (though the Montreal penalty kill helped rectify that a bit during the second round).

The Lightning are capable of winning the one-goal games, they’re also capable of offensive showings. Do the Rangers have the endurance to keep up with the speed? We’ve also (both teams) known Carey Price was a beast this season and the Lightning put him into a different kind of place — the L column. Henrik Lundqvist is looked upon league-wide as a force and a great character, but will he (and the team around him) solve the Lightning where Price, or Petr Mzarek (and the Detroit Red Wings) couldn’t?

I don’t think this series goes seven games, that much I’m certain of. The winner is something I’m waiting to see for myself.

Blogs • Rangers

May 15, 2015

Rangers-Lightning Is Frightening

One week ago, there was one minute and 41 seconds left in the Rangers’ season. Trailing the Capitals 1-0 with 1:41 left in the third period of Game 5, the realization that the Presidents’ Trophy

One week ago, there was one minute and 41 seconds left in the Rangers’ season. Trailing the Capitals 1-0 with 1:41 left in the third period of Game 5, the realization that the Presidents’ Trophy season was going to end in the second round after just 10 postseason games started to set in. And I thought of Mike McDermott narrating in Rounders.

“I’ve often seen these people, these squares, at the table. Short-stacked and long odds against, all their outs gone, one last card in the deck that can help them. I used to wonder how they could let themselves get into such bad shape … and how the hell they thought they could turn it around.”

The Rangers had one out left. They had to find a way to tie the game and either pull a Blackhawks’ Game 6 of the 2012-13 Stanley Cup Final and score twice in the final minute of the game or win it in overtime. And like Mikey McD, I wondered, “How could this Rangers team, the best Rangers team in 21 years, let themselves get into such bad shape?”

Chris Kreider scored at 18:19 of the third period to save the season and at 9:37 of overtime, Ryan McDonagh extended. Two days later, the Rangers solved Braden Holtby with four goals and then hung on for dear life in the final minutes of a 4-3 win. Three days after that, the Rangers overcame an Alex Ovechkin goal and 1-0 deficit to win in overtime, win a Game 7 on May 13 once again and be the first team in the history of the NHL to overcome a 3-1 series deficit in back-to-back seasons.

Before Game 7, I wrote about how every Stanley Cup-winning team must have a “championship moment” on their way to the Cup and if the Rangers are to win the Cup for the first time in 21 years, it’s going to be nearly impossible to top the odds that overcame in the second-round series against Washington.

The Penguins’ offseason is now 21 days old and the Capitals’ is two days old. For the third time in four years, the Rangers are in the conference finals, and the only thing standing in their way of returning to the Stanley Cup Final is the one team I wanted no part of this postseason: the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Rangers went 0-3 against the Lightning this year. They lost 5-1 (Nov. 17), 4-3 (Nov. 26) and 6-3 (Dec. 1) and were outscored 15-7 in those three games, but those games did all come in a span of 14 days at a time when the Rangers were banged up and not the Rangers we see today. The Rangers didn’t become the current form of their team until the second week of December.

The main problem with the Lightning is that I was the Trade Ryan Callahan for Martin St. Louis Club President and then I also served as the Don’t Overpay and Re-sign Brian Boyle, Benoit Pouliot and Anton Stralman Club President. (To my credit, I didn’t know Glen Sather was going to sign Tanner Glass or give a ridiculous extension to Marc Staal after having already given one to Dan Girardi.)

A series against the Lightning is challenging enough without the idea of having to watch Callahan, Boyle and Stralman advance to the Final and play for the Cup at the expense of the Rangers. That would be too much to take. A little like watching Marian Gaborik carry the Kings to the Stanley Cup against the Rangers a little over a year after the Rangers traded him to Columbus because John Tortorella didn’t like him. I’m petrified of this series and what a Rangers series loss will mean.

The only thing keeping me from locking myself in my apartment until this series is over (and if ends poorly staying locked in my apartment for the next year) is that Henrik Lundqvist is a Ranger. It’s been 34 days since the regular season ended and there’s still a season for the Rangers because of Henrik Lundqvist the way there has been a postseason for the Rangers every season but one since the 2004-05 lockout because of Henrik Lundqvist. He has once again been the best player on a team picked by many to reach the Final and finish the job they couldn’t last season and he’s been everything and more this postseason. As long as Lundqvist is in net, I will always like the Rangers’ chances.

I picked the Rangers to beat the Penguins in six and they did it in five. I picked the Rangers to beat the Capitals in six and they did it in seven. Both times I was wrong, but the result worked out in the end. So why change something that works?

Rangers in six.

Tag: Henrik Lundqvist