The Washington Capitals and NY Rangers are set for Game 5 of the eastern conference semifinals and the NHL playoffs game is an elimination matchup for New York, as they got hosed on some major calls and now are down 3-1 in the series to the Caps and the game starts at 7 pm ET on the NBC Sports Network and streaming from the NBCSN Live Extra website from Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers have to find a way to win three games in a row and the team did that last season against the Penguins but this will be tough to do again. The Rangers were ranked in the top three in scoring and goals against this season, but one of those has not been playing out in the playoffs, guess which one.
The Rangers have been terrible on offense and this series has been brutal for their fans, as the great season they had is about to end and there seems to be nothing they can do about it. The Rangers were the best team in the NHL and they have the best goalie, yet now the whole thing looks like it's about to fall apart. The team made a run to the finals last year and coming into the playoffs, expectations were even higher.
The Caps won the first game 2-1 and that has become a very common score for the team, as that is how the Rangers took down the Penguins. The scoring has been down for the team across the board and their superstar Rick Nash has been horrible as usual in the playoffs. Nash has been pathetic lately and while he has put up some strong numbers this season and has played well on defense, he is not scoring and guess what, neither are the Rangers.
The team has to win over the Capitals in this game to stay alive and that is obvious, but the team also needs to win to show that they actually arte not pathetic. The teams has scored just one goal in each of the last two games and that simply is not enough to beat a team like the Caps. Braden Holtby is playing like the second coming of Patrick Roy and seemingly every bounce, play call, tacky call and controversy is going Washington's way.
This is how things go when you don't play well and now the team has no choice but to try and come back. Sure, the team came back last year against the Penguins down 3-1, but why would that happen again? What are the odds of doing that again? Not sure any fan wants to know because they are probably astronomical.
Alain Vigneault has to get it together, as he has not made great decisions, including not playing Nash and Derick Brassard late against the Caps when the team was down a goal. The team only mustered three shots in the final five minutes and the power play has been pathetic.
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