NBC Sports analyst and former hockey player Keith Jones talks with The Post’s Justin Terranova about the Rangers’ Stanley Cup chances after dropping Game 1 to the Kings.
Q: What changed after the Rangers jumped up 2-0 in Game 1?
A: The Kings were a tired-looking team in the first period, and the Rangers had a ton of energy and were much fresher. They were able to use their skating legs through the neutral and offensive zone. The Kings recognized that and changed up their lines.
Q: Since the Rangers were the fresher team, is it damning that they lost?
A: Absolutely, that was the one to win. And now with two days off between games I’d expect (Anze) Kopitar to be more of a factor in Game 2. Of all the Kings stars he’s the one that looked a little more tired than the others. You can understand why: He went head-to-head with (Joe) Thornton and (Joe) Pavelski of San Jose, (Ryan) Getzlaf with Anaheim and (Jonathan) Toews with Chicago in Round 3, so no wonder he took a little breather in Game 1.
Q: The Rangers were down 3-1 to Pittsburgh, but is this still a more difficult hill to climb?
A: The Penguins are not close to what the L.A. Kings are. The Kings are a complete team and the Penguins are filled with holes all over, including goaltending. Someone points to (Jonathan) Quick’s numbers in the playoffs, and you’d say they aren’t that great, but he’s played against three of the top offensive teams in the league to get here and he found a way to get it done. He is an elite goaltender, and on a higher level right now than Henrik Lundqvist because he won a Stanley Cup championship.
Q: How can the Rangers win this series?
A: The Rangers did a great job on the penalty kill. It’s just going to come down to whether or not they can maintain the type of pressure they put on the Kings in the first period. The Rangers were physical, the more impactful hits came from the Rangers, but it seemed like those hits took a lot more out of them than it did in any other round.
Q: Can they keep some of the pressure off of Lundqvist, who faced 43 shots in the opener?
A: The style of play in the Western Conference is a real heavy, grind-it-out game and the Kings have enough gifted players where they can exchange chances with you, as well, if you want to play that style. The Kings will be able to maintain that pressure and that’s going to be a whole lot for Lundqvist to handle. He was superb in the game, he’s going to have to play the same game and the Rangers are going to have to pick up some power play goals in order to squeak one out in L.A.