For sure, the prospect of taking a commanding 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference second-round series against the Rangers is positively tantalizing for the Senators. But that, they insist, is not their focus. To a man, the Senators conceded after an hour-long practice at the Garden on Monday that they got away with one Saturday […]
Read MoreIt’s exactly what it looked like: Sidney Crosby is concussed, and the Penguins are in trouble. The Pittsburgh superstar, who led his team to a commanding 2-0 lead to begin the second-round series with the Capitals and had begun to appear destined for consecutive Stanley Cups, is out indefinitely following a questionably dirty cross-check to […]
Read MoreIt is, Derek Stepan said, “kind of controlled chaos,” which would be a slightly more accurate description of what goes on when the opposition pulls its goaltender for an extra attacker if the Rangers could actually control the chaos while trying to protect a one-goal lead. But they haven’t been able to control it all, […]
Read MoreThe natural question entering Tuesday night’s Game 3 between the Rangers and Senators at the Garden was this: What in the world did Ottawa’s unheralded center Jean-Gabriel Pageau have in store as an encore? Pageau rattled the Rangers and startled the hockey world in the Senators’ 6-5 double-overtime win Saturday by scoring four goals — […]
Read MoreThis was more than one victory, though that is all that it counts for. Because there was more to what happened, and how it happened, with the Rangers’ declarative 4-1 win over the Senators in Game 3 of their second-round series on Tuesday night at the Garden. It was a end-to-end thumping by the Blueshirts, […]
Read MoreThey grabbed this one by the throat and never released their grip on this 4-1 Game 3 victory over the Senators at the Garden on Tuesday that had 19 sets of Blueshirt fingerprints all over it and more if you include the coaching staff. Because while the Rangers played with authority out of the gate […]
Read MoreThe Senators learned Tuesday night that you cannot manufacture desperation, you cannot buy it at the corner store or online. Even in the vast space of the worldwide web, there’s no app to create desperation. You either have it or you don’t. And on this night, down 2-0 in the series, the Rangers had it […]
Read MoreAs there was a lineup change that turned the tide of the first round, so Rangers coach Alain Vigneault hoped it would work again in the second round. Vigneault inserted rugged winger Tanner Glass into the lineup for his team’s dominant 4-1 win over the Senators in Game 3 of their second-round series on Tuesday […]
Read MoreThe Rangers were already in complete command of the game they positively had to have, up 3-0 late in the second period. But still, the highlight-reel play of their 4-1 Game 3 victory over the Senators at the Garden was the gem that J.T. Miller turned in with 1:43 remaining in the period. It was […]
Read MoreThe Rangers understand the context of the situation, but they’re trying to block all of that context out. Because the minute they take their focus off the immediate task at hand is when that big picture can start to look dire — again. And so it’s with that mindset that they prepare for Game 4 […]
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