The ice war is on and nobody said it would be easy -- especially for the Carolina Hurricanes against the New York Rangers.
The ice war is on and nobody said it would be easy -- especially for the Carolina Hurricanes.
They finished three points behind the Presidents' Trophy-winning Rangers in the regular season, and now they look the part.
We envision another second-round playoff thriller tomorrow night at The Garden.
That three-point differential separates the men from the boys -- as in the New York regular season champs from the "Close-But-No-Cigar" Canes.
It was the difference on Sunday as the Blueshirts alternately thrilled -- and frightened -- and then provided ecstasy for fans. The closing green light was a delightful end to the 4-3 victory and a one-game lead in the series.
That said, we all expect this to be a long tourney since the teams are almost mirror images of each other.
The exception is that the Canes mirror is cracked, and the Rangers are clear for the following reasons.
1. GOALKEEPING: Igor Shesterkin is one deciding to save better than Fred Andersen.
2. Quality: The Rangers' best players -- especially Mika Zibanejad and Breadman Panarin -- are better than anything Carolina has to offer.
3. Special Teams: Canes coach Rod Brind'Amour is like a losing chess player trying to savvy how Rangers power players move the puck with such lightning speed.
Forget about Brindy's penalty killers; they killed his club's chances.
4. Dumb and Dumber: No penalty was more ill-advised than Andrei Svechnikov's tripping infraction near game's end when the Canes still could have tied it.
5. Advantage New York: Lavvy's Lads are the only ones who haven't lost a playoff game this postseason.
6. The crowd at The World's Most Famous Arena held up its end by goosing the ganders at the get-go and -- Bang! Bang! -- their heroes were off and running, er, skating to victory.
7. New York's penalty killers WERE killers: five for five
What we're getting at, folks, is what we asked for -- a serious series. And to the Rangers' credit, they showed no rust from their layoff.
But the margin between the teams is tantalizingly close, with New York holding the inches-only lead because of genuine stars.
Breadman's anti-choke formula has to scare the Canes, not to mention Magnificent Mika proving that his regular season slump was a Zibanejad way of playing possum.
The Canes contingent could claim they'd have won had a few goalposts not turned against them but -- sorry, Dixie Boys -- that's part of the "Close But No Cigar" syndrome.
"We played a pretty good game," declared coach Brind'Amour in his post-mortem.
Sorry, pal, what the Visitors needed was a very good game."
Although The Maven remains allergic to analytics, I do make an exception during the playoffs. With that in mind, contributor Kai Russel reminded me of the notorious "Corsi Canes." (By the way, that's "Corsi" as in analytics.)
Russel pointed out that the Canes "possessed the puck for much of the game." But his asterisk goes like this: "The Rangers prevented the possession from leading to sustained offense."
New York's antidote consisted of blocked shots and stifling zone entries. Okay, enough with the analytics since Laviolette already knows he's got a challenge on his hands tomorrow on Seventh Avenue.
"In the playoffs," Lavvy concludes, "it's game to game." Then, a pause: "But we have to elevate our game."
His elevator has passed the first floor and should go higher tomorrow -- while the ice war goes on!