The New York Rangers, float or sink?

The New York Rangers vs The Ottawa Senators
Credit to MattBrit00 on Flickr

The New York Rangers may not be the best team in the Stanley Cup playoffs this year; however, they’re a powerful team that won’t give up. Despite their rough history, The Rangers have improved and can win the Stanley Cup.

The blueshirts beat the Ottawa Senators in the playoffs with a record of 4-3 and advanced to round two. However, watching the first round of the games, it is noticeable the Rangers improved since the regular season.

In the regular season, the Rangers were usually defeated by the Senators with a large three point difference, but now in the playoffs, the Rangers manage to decrease the differences of scores to only one or two points.

It's true that The Senators have a great offense that finish in the top 35 offensive GVT ranks like Erik Karlsson (fourth), Jason Spezza (sixth), and Daniel Alfredsson (34th) , however, The Rangers have an even better defense player to match it up with defensemen Ryan McDonagh (fourth), Dan Girardi (seventh), and Michael Del Zotto (28th) in the top 30 GVT defense ranking. They also have Henrik Lundqvist, who has the third highest ranking for goaltending.

The Rangers are playing well, and they are going to start playing better. The other team better watch out, because the Rangers are coming through!

Is this the Rangers' year?

New York Rangers locker room- vipeldo / Flickr

The New York Rangers will advance to the finals in the Stanly Cup. The Rangers are playing against the Ottawa Senators and are down in the series three to two. The Rangers, who haven’t won the Stanley Cup since the '93-'94 season, must get past the Senators in order to advance to the semi-finals.

The Rangers won games one and three of the series and lost games two, four, and five. The Rangers had an impressive regular season winning 50 games and coming in first place in their division. In the games against Ottawa, the Rangers have made the games close, but didn’t make the most out of their opportunities.

Center forward Brian Boyle, who has scored in the last three games against Ottawa, will need to step up big in game seven in order to keep the Rangers' post season hopes alive. Boyle has been one of the leading scorers for the Rangers during the post season and seems to perform well against the Senators. Center forward Brad Richards, who has taken 26 shots during the post season and only has a 3.8 shooting percentage, has to be accurate with his shots in order to help the team score more goals. 

If the Rangers are able to play solid defense and work well together they will be able to win game seven against Ottawa. The Rangers need to play like the team who has one of the best records in the whole NFL in order to advance to the next stage of the playoffs.  

The defensive New York Rangers can go far in the NHL playoffs

Henrik Lundqvist

The New York Rangers are trying to keep the eighth spot from the Hurricanes who are behind by four points. The Rangers are likely to make it into the playoffs and be victorious in the first round against the Capitals who they have beaten four times in the six game regular season series . They are a low scoring team but make up for it on defense. They are fifth in the NHL in goals against averaging and fourth in shot blocking. The Rangers are lead by Swedish goaltender Henrik Lundqvist who has 2.77 GAA and 1766 saves. He is a force on the team and steps up when the team needs him to.

The Rangers lack of scoring is a problem.The team presses on defense then scores on turnovers. Low scoring will give them problems in tight post season games. Also, they will struggle playing nearly every game away. They are an eighth seed which takes away their home court advantage and lead them into hostile crowds as visitors.

Center Brandon Dubinsky needs to score and pass the puck to keep the Rangers winning. They have to keep the strong defense they have played for all of the season. Their defense will be a problem for high scoring teams. Despite their troubles on offense, the Rangers have a big chance this season after their absence from last  year's playoffs.