The New York Rangers and Montreal Canadiens are playing on the NHL playoffs schedule on Thursday and the eastern conference finals has Game 3 at Madison Square Garden and the game starts up at 8 pm and is online live streaming and on the radio and comes on TV from the NBC Sports Network and NY has the chance to go up three games, as they are leading 2-1 in the series.
The Rangers have been on fire since coming back from a 3-1 deficit against the Penguins in the second round and they have not lost since falling in Game 4 at MSG. The Rangers took down the Penguins with great defense and they have been doing that once again in the series with the Canadiens, keeping players like PK Subban and Thomas Vanek out of the net. The Rangers have played very well on the offensive end and Rick Nash looks like he is finally waking up after leading the team in shots and not scoring any goals before coming through in Game 1 and then he added another in Game 2.
Chris Kreider has been the spark for the Rangers and he was the player who crashed into Carey Price and ended up knocking him out of the series. Kreider scored a goal in that game and he added a beautiful assist on Nash's goal, feeding him the puck on a touch pass that he one timed into the net. The Canadiens will once again start their rookie in net and if the Rangers are aggressive, they might be able to get him off his game early once again. Martin St. Louis's story has been an emotional one for the team and it has brought the players closer together and they all attended the funeral for his mother on Sunday and then won the game on Monday.
The power play goal from Kreider in Game 5 against the Penguins to break a long power play drought could be what turned the whole season around, as that saw the Rangers start coming back from the 3-1 deficit. The Rangers had gone nine games without scoring a power play goal when Kreider scored and while he was booed whenever he touched the puck in Game 2 after what happened with Price, Kreider relished in it and players another very solid game for the Rangers, setting up Nash with a beautiful pass to score his goal. The Canadiens won over the Lightning in four games and then played seven against the Boston Bruins and now they are up against it with the Rangers up two games.
The Rangers come into things after winning over the Flyers in seven games and the Penguins in seven after coming back from two games down and now the team has a ton of momentum heading back to MSG, but of course, they did lose both games in three and four against the Penguins at the Garden. Max Pacioretty scored the first goal for the Canadiens six minutes into the game and the Bell Centre went nuts after the blowout in Game 1, but it was short lived after McDonagh threw a puck at the net and it went in off a defenseman. Nash's goal turned out to be huge and Martin St. Louis later added another power play goal in the second for some cushion and there was no scoring in the third period.
Click here for the Montreal Canadiens and NY Rangers live coverage from NBC for the NHL playoffs.