Three times in these playoffs, the Rangers have taken a 1-0 lead in their series. Each time, the Senators, Capitals and Devils came back to win Game 2 and tie the series.
That same pattern played out in Game 3 and 4 in each of the first two rounds of the playoffs, with the Senators and Capitals pushing the Blueshirts to seven games in each series. Tonight, when the Rangers take on the Devils at the Prudential Center in Game 4 of this Battle of the Hudson, they have a chance to finally break that pattern, and allow themselves to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the series.
“It’s a big game, the next one,” Marc Staal said after the Rangers had an optional skate at the Garden yesterday. “We want to come out with a good effort to try to get it.
“It’s a big one for us. We know that. We’re going to go out there and try and get it done.”
The fact the Rangers haven’t been able to get that done so far in these playoffs has been a large factor in why they’ve been pushed to seven games in each of the playoffs’ first two rounds.
That inability to keep a team down is something players admitted they were thinking about as they prepared for tonight’s game, and their latest opportunity to do just that.
“Obviously we want to play with urgency every game,” Derek Stepan said. “I think that’s where maybe in the first two series we kind of lost it coming into certain games, but we want to try to focus on that and make sure we come out with a lot of intensity.”
When asked if he thought that a lack of intensity in those situations was giving his teams trouble, however, coach John Tortorella said that wasn’t an issue.
“No, no,” he said. “We’re always urgent. It’s the playoffs.”
Part of the Rangers’ plan to get that elusive two-game lead in this series is to avoid the rocky start they had Saturday in Game 3. The Devils took the game to the Blueshirts in the first period, which only ended scoreless thanks to several spectacular saves from Henrik Lundqvist.
“We know we can’t play … continue to play like we did in the first period, or have another first period like that,” Brad Richards said. “You’re playing with fire. So we’ll be focused on getting a good start.”
The Rangers have been built on the foundation of strong goaltending from Lundqvist and the play of their talented group of defensemen. But Brian Boyle said the Rangers need to make it a little easier on their goaltender, who already has pitched two shutouts in the first three games of the series.
“I think we feel we can elevate our play a little bit,” he said. “They are probably going to do the same. And, especially through the first half of the game, maybe, in Game 3, we relied on Hank.
“He’s been great for us. That’s what he’s there for. But we want to dictate play a little more, maybe have the puck a little more.”