Rangers Get Home Monkey Off Their Backs & Knot Series At 2

The Rangers are back baby!

Gotta love the pendulum of playoff sports. More times than not a 7-game series is loaded with momentum swings and tonight is a perfect example. After finally getting their first W in 7 tries in front of their home fans, NY answered the bell in a big way when many were afraid the team died on Easter Sunday.

Sure, you’d like to see the Blueshirts give themselves a little cushion but the biggest difference in tonight’s win is that they didn’t just sit back and accept a Habs barrage. They dictated play after Rick Nash buried the eventual game winner early in the second & held Montreal to a measly 12 shots in the final 40. They stayed disciplined and made a clear effort to avoid the over-pursuit, especially behind their own net, and the Canadiens couldn’t get anything going.

Brendan Smith is winning fans over with an outstanding postseason performance and actually played more minutes than all Rangers defensemen – even beat out McDonagh by a few seconds. Kevin Hayes almost dropped the mitts with Gallagher. Before Nash scored one that counted, he forced his way to the net & beat Price before kneeing him in the head. It was waved off & Rick got 2 minutes in the sin bin but that’s a penalty you can live with. Love to see the big man unafraid to drive to the blue paint. He’s been great for most of the series as well. No Blueshirt has been as good as Hank who, with the help of a late post, was only beaten once on an odd-man rush he had no hope of stopping. No goalie’s made more saves this postseason.

We got ourselves a three game series now, heading back to Montreal where the Habs barely squeaked out a win in two tries. My “Rangers in 6″ prediction is looking pretty good right now & another effort like tonight should bring this squad one step closer. VIVA LA BLUESHIRTS!!!