What's the Rangers' mindset going into a critical Game 6 matchup against the Hurricanes?
There are two ways of looking at this perplexing Rangers team as it faces its most crucial game of the season tonight in Raleigh.
One way is that engineer Peter Laviolette's locomotive has gone off the tracks and needs urgent care before it crashes out of the playoffs in Game 7.
OR, The Worry Warts are all wrong. The Blueshirts were just biding their time in Games 4 and 5 with Game 6 tonight their series-clincher.
It depends on who you choose to believe.
Larry Brooks in The Post tells us that Igor Shesterkin has raised his game despite the three biscuits that sailed past him in the third period of Game 5.
Mark Lazerus in The Athletic noted: "In their biggest period of the season, the Rangers wilted and were blown away."
Hockey author Sam Jefferies, whose work has appeared in Sports Business Journal and Sporting Classics, among others, blames Rangers "complacency" for their listless efforts in Game 5.
"When they had a 3-1 lead in games, it was such a trap," says Jefferies, "the team was practically lifting The Stanley Cup already."
Right now the only thing they should be lifting is themselves. But how? It's tough to say whether Lavvy's stickhandlers are in a predicament or rather sitting pretty.
There sure is a predicament when it comes to the latest Mark Messier Leadership Award-winner, Jacob Trouba.
Reaching into the vox populi – alias voice of the people – I found a decades-long Rangers fan, David Kreda, who points a finger at Trouba as part of the Rangers problem.
"He makes terrible passes, is often out of position and take pointless penalties," says Kreda. "He's a step behind which leads me to believe that he may be playing hurt."
The Maven is with Sam Jefferies. With a three-zip lead in games, the Blueshirts got cocky and took their foot off the pedal.
You all know about the "Dreaded Three-Goal Lead," don't you? Well the Rangers were felled by the "Dreaded Three-Game Lead." and they let the Canes seize the initiative and then exploit "The Same Old Rangers curse," as my buddy Seann McCaffrey puts it.
Then again, that negative talk goes right out the window when we realize that "The Lavioteers" have made it a dressing room law when it comes to rebounding.
Or, as Dan Rosen of NHL.com reported from a Wednesday practice, "The Rangers were loose."
That's the sign of a relaxed, confident club secure in the knowledge that a revisit to thunderous PNC Arena is roughly equivalent to noise going in the left ear and out the right.
"We just have to play better," says New York's defenseman K'Andre Miller.
But what if Carolina won't let them. Right now, Canes coach Rod Brind'Amour does not have a Norris Trophy candidate like Adam Fox.
What he does have is Jacob Slavin – better than the Rangers Jacob Trouba – Brent Burns, Dmitry Orlov and Brady Skjei. Right now I'll take them over New York's top five.
Carolina's oft-injured goalie Frederik Andersen looked as good as Shesterkin in Game 5. What's more, the Canes Trade Deadline addition of left wing Jake Guentzel is looking like a bigger threat in every game.
Perhaps most important – and most overlooked – is the fact that the Canes braintrust may have figured out the Rangers. Or as they say in the spy business, "broken the code."
If that's the case, I'll be seeing you at The Garden for Game 7!