Game four at Madison Square Garden between the New York Rangers and the New Jersey Devils is the biggest game of the year for both teams. The Devils have a chance to take back all the momentum as a win would bring this thing back to Jersey knotted at two apiece. The Rangers can suck all of the life out of the Devils with a win tonight, giving them a commanding 3-1 series lead.
If I were to tell you prior to the start of the playoffs that the Rangers would have a 2-1 series lead with game four on home ice, any fan would be happy with that situation, right? So I am curious as to why a lot of the fan base is nervous as we head into game four tonight at the World's Most Famous Arena.
The Rangers have been the better team in all three games of this series. Sure, game three was not their best performance, but it wasn't because of a lack of effort, more so due to the lack of execution.
Head Coach, Gerard Gallant said it best "I think we played the same game, we didn't execute near as well. That was the only thing. I thought the passes weren't as crisp. We didn't get as many shots as we should have at the net. I thought we passed a few up, but overall we played hard, and competed hard, just didn't execute well enough."
These kinds of games happen in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It's very rare that a team executes every single night and that is why this is one of the hardest trophies to win in all of the major sports.
If anything, Ranger fans should feel encouraged. Even though this team didn't play their best game and didn't have the execution, they were still in a 1-1 hockey game and had the chance to win in overtime. It would be way more concerning had the Devils run them out of the building with a lopsided win, but that wasn't the case.
Now, let's get to Akira Schmid. The Devils' netminder had a solid Stanley Cup Playoff debut, but it didn't necessarily feel like the Rangers challenged him too much.
Vincent Trocheck had this to say in yesterday's media availability "The goalies in the crease. He's not making too much of a difference anywhere else on the ice. He played really well last night, but we just got to make sure we try and bear down on our chances, and get pucks by him. Shoot a little more."
This team isn't concerned with who is in goal for New Jersey, and they shouldn't be.
The positive thing to take away from game three is that the Rangers have continued to take the Devils' game away from them. Despite the overtime goal from Dougie Hamilton, the Devils haven't had necessarily any success at playing 5-on-5, which was their bread and butter all year long.
New Jersey was generating the second most high-danger scoring chances in the regular season at 5-on-5 and they have only been able to score one goal in three games. The Rangers have been playing excellent defensively, in fact, they have also outshot the Devils in two out of the three games thus far (game one).
The biggest difference in game three was New York's puck decisions. In games one and two combined, the Rangers only had nine giveaways. In game three alone, they had 19.
As coach Gallant said, it all comes down to execution and that is the key for the Rangers tonight. They don't need to switch up the lines or change up the power play, they just need to execute, which means possessing the puck below the goal line in the offensive zone, getting the puck from low to high, and creating traffic at the net for second chance scoring opportunities. They didn't have much of that in game three.
Going 0/5 on the power play didn't help much either, but the Devils were a little more aggressive on the penalty kill. This didn't come as a surprise to New York since they had to assume the Devils would make adjustments after allowing four goals on 10 opportunities.
Two guys that the Rangers are awaiting some production from are Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin. Both guys had some excellent opportunities in game three, they just couldn't convert. Panarin had two chances that stand out. A breakaway in the first period and a one-timer late in the third period. He missed the net on both, which brings this whole thing back to execution. If Panarin is able to hit the net on these opportunities, who knows how that impacts the game?
It's extra encouraging that the Rangers have a lead in the series with Zibanejad and Panarin not even fully going yet. Both players have two assists and seven shots on goal in the three games. That just shows the depth this team has.
With all of this being said, Igor Shesterkin has been the most consistent player in this series and he is the sole reason why the Rangers and the fans should not be worried. Shesterkin has only allowed four goals in 80 shots faced in the series thus far. He has the second-best goals saved above expected in the playoffs right now, skating to a +3.7, while also boasting a .950 save percentage and 1.26 goals against average.
It's no secret that the Devils have to be the more desperate team tonight, but if the Rangers are able to clean it up and execute, this series should be going back to New Jersey at 3-1.
We've got a fun one on our hands tonight.