Regarding the Rangers, who are one win away from advancing to the conference finals, and how many of you folks ever expected to read that sentence when training camp commenced?
1. The focus is on Thursday’s potential Game 6 clincher in Raleigh, N.C., but as the Blueshirts try, try, try again they also have to be aware that three strikes do not mean the team is out.
The Rangers cannot put so much emphasis on getting it done in this one that they’d be mentally defeated already even before the puck drop if a Game 7 were to become necessary.
Four teams in NHL history have overcome 3-0 deficits to win a best-of-seven. But there have been five teams that have been caught from behind after holding a 3-0 edge but recovered to win Game 7.
Thursday would be nice, but Thursday is not a must-win.
2. There is a fine line between panic and obstinance. That is the tightrope head coach Peter Laviolette and his staff will have to navigate in the approach this one.
It does not sound as if Blake Wheeler, who was just cleared to practice without restriction after sustaining a severe season-ending leg injury on Feb. 15, is a realistic option. It seems mighty unlikely that Filip Chytil would be in position to step in as he deals with the physical aftereffects of playing his first game in 189 days last Thursday. Lineup adjustments will have to come from within.
Jimmy Vesey, who brings speed and jam to the ice, needs more ice time and a more prominent role and he should be shifted to the right with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider.
At the same time, Jack Roslovic, the BFF’s current right wing, should move to the middle on a recreated third line with Alex Wennberg bumped down to the fourth unit.
There wasn’t nearly enough zone time for the Zibanejad line over the last two games, they were not much of a five-on-five threat at all and there wasn’t nearly enough physical work from that unit in the Game 5 debacle.
Vesey, who is getting 11:57 of ice per, is a puck-digger and puck-retriever who escalates the tempo of Nos. 20 and 93 when a triumvirate. The line was on for 3.65 Rangers goals per 60:00 over 49:16 during the season. It was the highest per-60 rate for Kreider and Zibanjead with any of their right wings.
Roslovic is kind of a soloist who has had his moments for sure through the tournament. But it’s hit and miss and the Rangers require more consistency at the top. But he’s an offensive guy. And that’s what the third line needs at the moment.
Again. It is on the top-six. It is on the marquee guys. But the Rangers need to get productivity out of the third line that’s had Wennberg in the middle between Will Cuylle and Kaapo Kakko. The unit is likely an analytics darling, on for two goals and none against with a 68.04 percent expected goal rate through 59:31 in the playoffs.
But Wennberg just doesn’t shoot the puck. The Swede had glorious opportunities early in the first period of Game 5 from right in front and did not get the puck on net. Roslovic would look to shoot the puck with defensive support supplied by the always conscientious Kakko.
3. The power play was so dysfunctional in Monday’s 4-1 defeat that Michael Peca, the assistant coach who runs it, gave the hook to the first unit after 58 seconds on its first opportunity late in the first period and threw on the second unit for a defensive-zone draw.
Defensive-zone draws are different, and there is of course the need for defensive awareness when on the man-advantage, but again, really, the offensively challenged Wennberg on the second unit?
4. A year ago in what has seemed to be a different galaxy in New Jersey, the Rangers demanded adjustments that apparently were never enacted against the Devils and were never able to slow them down.
As this series has progressed, the Canes have become increasingly dominant in the time-and-space game. The Blueshirts always seem rushed, they’ve been forced to resort to too many plays where they just get it off their stick by flinging it into the neutral zone and hope to live another day.
The Canes, meanwhile, have been able to explode out of their zone and pierce the Blueshirts 1-3-1 as if it were a training exercise. There’s always a weakside outlet with open space. The Rangers need to address that.
The Rangers will have to adjust.