Tonight's The night! Florida can wrap up Lord Stanley's mug with a win this evening at Rogers Place, home of the Oilers. It would be, ironically, 41 years since the Islanders silenced Wayne Gretzky's bunch in four straight. (I was there at Nassau Coliseum.) What's fascinating today is that since the Panthers began pouring oil on the skating Oil Cans, the focus has been on how both the Edmontonians and Rangers can become reasonable facsimiles of the potential champs. That is, if they pay attention. Sean Avery Illustrates Rangers Perfect Shift Sportsnet's Mark Spector and Luke Fox have done more research on the issue than anyone that The Maven has studied. Without crazy analytics, they've pinpointed how the Blueshirts can change for the better. My reaction to the "magic method" has made me shake my head in wonderment over why the high command of Chris Drury and Peter Laviolette had not figured out the formula. Let's face it, if every Ranger had done the following the outcome might have been a lot different for the Blueshirts. Here's what Sportsnet's Spector gleaned from Florida's Sam Bennett. (Read it and tell me if it could have been applied to the Rangers.) "Every single guy has had to buy into the game plan," says Bennett. "And every single guy has had to accept our defense-first system of coming back and supporting each other. There has to be a full commitment from the entire group." Now, Rangers fans, ask yourself how close the Blueshirts came to achieving these goals against the Panthers? Did every single Rangers buy into it? Certainly not? Did they come back and support each other? Ditto. There was a commitment but not nearly as intense nor as effective as Florida's. Bennett: "Good defensive hockey forces turnovers and that's been our goal. As soon as there's a turnover we attack right away. But it all comes from good defense." Ask yourself how the Rangers' game plans stacked up against these – and how well it worked or did not work. Ask yourself how well the Rangers did in the wall battles. It was one facet of the third round where New York failed and reinforces the need for more hard-checking forwards in the Blueshirts lineup next fall." Once, just once during the Rangers failed attempt to get to the Cup Final did I hear laconic Peter Laviolette echo the words delivered by Paul Maurice before his Cats began meowing in Game 3 on Thursday night. "PUT YOUR ASS ON THAT WALL AND DO THE BEST YOU CAN!" Spector of Sportsnet put it another way. "Win the middle of the ice and then win the walls as well." Why didn't The Breadman think of that?
