The Rangers spent most of the season looking like a shadow of a team that rolled to the top seed in the Eastern Conference last year.
But, as the Kings showed last season on their way to a No. 8 seed that resulted in a Stanley Cup, a mediocre starts means little when it’s accompanied by a strong finish. That’s the script the Rangers and their first-round opponent, the Capitals, would love to follow.
“I think the Rangers played their best hockey in April, and that makes this matchup interesting, because I don’t think anyone was hotter than Washington,” MSG analyst Joe Micheletti said before the Capitals opened the series with a 3-1 win last night.
“So, the Rangers come into this with momentum and they addressed their scoring issues at the trade deadline. Now they have some confidence that they can score goals. … But they are going against a team that also has a lot of momentum.”
The two teams are a part of what appears to be a wide-open Eastern Conference. The top-seeded Penguins have been without star Sidney Crosby for the final month of the season and he sat out their dominating 5-0 Game 1 win over the Islanders on Wednesday night. The Canadiens, Bruins and Maple Leafs all had lackluster finishes, and the Senators are talented but dealt with inconsistency and injuries before settling in as the seventh seed.
“I don’t think any of the teams in the conference or the league fear any other team,” MSG play-by-play man Sam Rosen said. “There are no dominant teams. There are very good teams and the Pittsburgh Penguins are one of them. If they are healthy, have their full complement, they are certainly the team to beat.”
Just like the Rangers were considered the favorites last year when they needed seven games to eliminate the eighth-seeded Senators and seventh-seeded Capitals before falling to the sixth-seeded Devils in six games. But this is a different Rangers team — one that is more capable of scoring thanks to the offseason acquisition of Rick Nash and the deadline trade of Marian Gaborik to the Blue Jackets that netted the Blueshirts much-needed depth.
But right now they don’t have top defenseman Marc Staal, who was hit in the eye with a puck on March 5.
“To me, this team now is not as good defensively as they were last season,” Micheletti said. “And the biggest reason is Marc Staal.’’
Both the Rangers and the Capitals will be more dependent on offense this postseason after they combined for 28 total goals in last season’s seven-game series. Washington star Alex Ovechkin was a full-time member of Dale Hunter’s doghouse a year ago, but under Adam Oates he has returned to MVP form.
“I think we are going to see a totally different series,” Micheletti said. “Ovechkin, when he first came into the league and he won back-to-back MVPs, he was a player you would pay top dollar to watch. That’s how exciting he was. The scoring, the hitting, the emotion, you name it and he was worth the price of admission, and then he got away from that for whatever reason. He wasn’t close to that same level the past few years and now he is.
“Adam Oates has done a marvelous job, even though he deflects it, to get [Ovechkin] back playing the way he has with emotion and being the leader of the team.”
First Round
Game 2
Tomorrow
Rangers at Caps, 12:30 p.m., NBC
Game 3
Monday
Caps at Rangers, 7:30 p.m., MSG
Game 4
Wednesday
Caps at Rangers, 7:30 p.m., MSG