NY Rangers Win!

[Future]

The Canadians lost because they got nothing from their top line. Their already weak depth on defense took another hit in this series but Tokarski bailed them out on that. The only way Price could have made a difference is if he could have scored a goal or two.

Do they even have a top line?

I don't think they have a single forward who strikes fear into anybody. Maybe Pacioretty? Vanek was supposed to but that never came to fruition. PK Subban carried them through the Bruins series, but didn't have any juice for the Blueshirts. The Habs seriously overachieved to get to where they did, but without a major facelift, I wouldn't expect to see them back in contention next season.

 

[Joe Realist]

The Kings seem like a team on a mission. The first team in NHL history to win 3 Game 7's on the road in a playoff year. They also came back from being down 3-0 to the Sharks earlier in the playoffs..

Kings in 6.

 

[Future]

The Kings seem like a team on a mission. The first team in NHL history to win 3 Game 7's on the road in a playoff year. They also came back from being down 3-0 to the Sharks earlier in the playoffs..

Kings in 6.

They're also going to be pretty tired, and looked like they were at the end of that series.

Brown said something awfully similar to Gionta after the Habs beat the Bruins...something to the effect of "The most emotionally exhausting and tough series I've ever played in." With only two days rest, that could catch up to them, especially against a Rangers team that will have to win with speed.

Having said that, I still think my Rangers are the underdog, but I'm confident they can beat LA.

 

[Craig]

The Rangers have a lot of rest since their last game, but they've only played one game fewer than the Kings. They'll need to take advantage of a slow start if they're going to have a chance. If the Rangers don't win game 1, I can't imagine the series going past 5 games. I didn't think the Rangers had a shot against the Habs though either.

 

[Joe Realist]

They're also going to be pretty tired, and looked like they were at the end of that series.

Brown said something awfully similar to Gionta after the Habs beat the Bruins...something to the effect of "The most emotionally exhausting and tough series I've ever played in." With only two days rest, that could catch up to them, especially against a Rangers team that will have to win with speed.

Having said that, I still think my Rangers are the underdog, but I'm confident they can beat LA.

Rangers best chance is Game 1. There are 2 days off between Game 1 and 2, which will help the Kings.

 

[CanadianCowboysFan]

Do they even have a top line?

I don't think they have a single forward who strikes fear into anybody. Maybe Pacioretty? Vanek was supposed to but that never came to fruition. PK Subban carried them through the Bruins series, but didn't have any juice for the Blueshirts. The Habs seriously overachieved to get to where they did, but without a major facelift, I wouldn't expect to see them back in contention next season.

We had a better season than the Rangers did and were first in the division last year. Our run to the semi finals is no more of a fluke than the Rangers run to the Finals.

 

[CanadianCowboysFan]

The Rangers have a lot of rest since their last game, but they've only played one game fewer than the Kings. They'll need to take advantage of a slow start if they're going to have a chance. If the Rangers don't win game 1, I can't imagine the series going past 5 games. I didn't think the Rangers had a shot against the Habs though either.

they didn't until Kreider took out Price

 

[Future]

We had a better season than the Rangers did and were first in the division last year. Our run to the semi finals is no more of a fluke than the Rangers run to the Finals.

The Habs had fewer wins than the Rangers, which means they racked up a handful more of Bettman's loser points...plus the Rangers differential was +25 while the Habs' was only +11. Hardly a "better" season.

 

[Future]

they didn't until Kreider took out Price

I hope this is a joke...Tokarski was outstanding.

I don't know why people thought the Rangers were an underdog against the Habs. The teams the Rangers struggled with all year are the tough, grind it out teams...like Boston. Canadiens try to do everything with skill, which makes them a great matchup for NYR. Even if we call goaltending a wash, the Rangers have a much better blueline and three scoring lines. The Habs are small, not particularly physical, and not particularly fast. They play well as a team and in their system, but eventually, they lost to a more talented team. Rangers were CLEARLY the better team in this series, and I don't think it was even close.

 

[Craig]

they didn't until Kreider took out Price

Haha. I'm a Kreider fan...so I like to think he contributed in more ways than that.

 

[CanadianCowboysFan]

Haha. I'm a Kreider fan...so I like to think he contributed in more ways than that.

Price stated he didn't think he went into him deliberately but stated he also did nothing not to hit him.

Anyway, was a good season for us, went further than most expected, brought excitement to the largest fan base in the NHL. Can't ask for much more especially since the Cowboys seem to bring me nothing but heartache these days.

 

[CanadianCowboysFan]

I hope this is a joke...Tokarski was outstanding.

I don't know why people thought the Rangers were an underdog against the Habs. The teams the Rangers struggled with all year are the tough, grind it out teams...like Boston. Canadiens try to do everything with skill, which makes them a great matchup for NYR. Even if we call goaltending a wash, the Rangers have a much better blueline and three scoring lines. The Habs are small, not particularly physical, and not particularly fast. They play well as a team and in their system, but eventually, they lost to a more talented team. Rangers were CLEARLY the better team in this series, and I don't think it was even close.

Tokarski was fine but Price being out changed the entire dynamic of the series. Price would not have allowed 61s goal in game 2. He also plays the puck better so the Rangers were able to forecheck harder whereas with Price he would have cleared it out. The Canadiens D had to skate much harder back than normal and had no legs by game 6.

Rangers were better in game 1, we were in game 2, game 3 was even, game 4 even, game 5 to us, Game 6 to Rangers. You were hardly "clearly" the better team.

 

[CanadianCowboysFan]

The Habs had fewer wins than the Rangers, which means they racked up a handful more of Bettman's loser points...plus the Rangers differential was +25 while the Habs' was only +11. Hardly a "better" season.

We had a record of 46-29-8, Rangers were 45-31-6. We had the same number of "losses", we just had two more in OT or shootout. You had one more ROW win than we did.

So you did not have have more wins than we did.

We ended up with four more points.

You also only scored 3 more goals over 82 games, statistically insignificant. You gave up 11 less but most of that difference likely occurred when Price was out for about 3 weeks after the Olympics and we gave up a ton of goals on a western trip with Budaj as the main starter. Trying to make out that the Rangers were a better team over the regular season is ridiculous.

 

[Future]

We had a record of 46-29-8, Rangers were 45-31-6. We had the same number of "losses", we just had two more in OT or shootout. You had one more ROW win than we did.

So you did not have have more wins than we did.

We ended up with four more points.

You also only scored 3 more goals over 82 games, statistically insignificant. You gave up 11 less but most of that difference likely occurred when Price was out for about 3 weeks after the Olympics and we gave up a ton of goals on a western trip with Budaj as the main starter. Trying to make out that the Rangers were a better team over the regular season is ridiculous.

ROW includes OT wins, not shootout. So you had a couple more shootout wins which are garbage...which is why ROW is its own statistic and a tiebreaker in the first place.

Also, if you're going to nitpick, you can do the same thing with the Rangers when they had that West Coast trip to start the season and were abysmal...getting smacked by the Ducks and Sharks. You can talk about the 17 games Rick Nash missed and the month Callahan was out if you want to go the injury route.

You are the one who said they had a "better" season, I never did. The Rangers had more goals (statistically insignificant or not), fewer surrendered, and more ROW...which suggests that, if they weren't even, the Rangers had the better year.

 

[Future]

Tokarski was fine but Price being out changed the entire dynamic of the series. Price would not have allowed 61s goal in game 2. He also plays the puck better so the Rangers were able to forecheck harder whereas with Price he would have cleared it out. The Canadiens D had to skate much harder back than normal and had no legs by game 6.

Rangers were better in game 1, we were in game 2, game 3 was even, game 4 even, game 5 to us, Game 6 to Rangers. You were hardly "clearly" the better team.

Maybe youre right on the forechecking a bit, but they didn't have any legs to start the series anyways and had absolutely 0 answer for Kreider and Hagelin regardless of who was in net.

Idk how you can call game 4 even when the Habs had 8 powerplays - almost exclusively on offensive zone penalties - and couldn't win. That is complete offensive ineptitude.

 

[Shunpike]

I like how everybody is counting Rangers out already. As if it is Kings' birthright to win the Cup. We shall see.

 

[CanadianCowboysFan]

ROW includes OT wins, not shootout. So you had a couple more shootout wins which are garbage...which is why ROW is its own statistic and a tiebreaker in the first place.

Also, if you're going to nitpick, you can do the same thing with the Rangers when they had that West Coast trip to start the season and were abysmal...getting smacked by the Ducks and Sharks. You can talk about the 17 games Rick Nash missed and the month Callahan was out if you want to go the injury route.

You are the one who said they had a "better" season, I never did. The Rangers had more goals (statistically insignificant or not), fewer surrendered, and more ROW...which suggests that, if they weren't even, the Rangers had the better year.

I know what the tie breakers are. You said the Rangers had more wins, they didn't, you lose. A shootout win counts as two points, it isn't a tiebreaker but it counts as two points, a win is a win is a win. Admit you were wrong.

 

[CanadianCowboysFan]

Maybe youre right on the forechecking a bit, but they didn't have any legs to start the series anyways and had absolutely 0 answer for Kreider and Hagelin regardless of who was in net.

Idk how you can call game 4 even when the Habs had 8 powerplays - almost exclusively on offensive zone penalties - and couldn't win. That is complete offensive ineptitude.

but you cannot say the Rangers were clearly the better team in that game, it was even. We blew it, no ifs ands or buts about it. No way we should have lost to that team but we did.

 

[BIGDen]

Haha. I'm a Kreider fan...so I like to think he contributed in more ways than that.

A blind man could see that he did. The Rangers have been a better team since his return from injury. You can't just replace his size and speed. Like I said in an earlier post, Tokarski had one bad game - and he won that one because the Rangers goalies were worse. Kreider played very well in that series. McDonough was awesome too. What a great trade that was.

 

[BIGDen]

but you cannot say the Rangers were clearly the better team in that game, it was even. We blew it, no ifs ands or buts about it. No way we should have lost to that team but we did.

And why is that? Were the Canadiens clearly the better team? No. Did they play better? No. Were they deeper? No. Were they even able to score a goal in their season-ending loss in game 6? No. Did they look like they just couldn't keep up any longer by the time their final 3rd period rolled around. Absolutely.

Beating the Bruins was a great accomplishment (and thanks for that BTW), but it also seemed to give Canadiens fans a heightened sense of how good they actually were. The Rangers and Canadiens were comparable teams this season, but the Rangers were the better team in that series.

Now on to the Finals!