The NHL Stanley Cup finals are live Monday night from Madison Square Garden as the Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers play Game 3 of their finals series for the championship and LA is up 2-0 in the final and now play in NY and this is a must-win game for the team after dropping the first two in overtime and while the Kings got the benefit of some referee calls, the Blueshirts need to find a way to dig one out against these zombie-like Kings.
The Rangers have not trailed in regulation in this series and now they have the chance to steal back some momentum and they are in danger of falling behind 3-0 in the series and that could be impossible to overcome. The Kings already did that this year to the Sharks and that makes it very unlikely that the Rangers could do it, especially in the Stanley Cup. It has been 20 years since a Stanley Cup finals playoff game was played at the Garden and it has been that long since the Rangers have won a championship game and this is a huge opportunity for NY to bounce back and take some momentum in the series.
The Rangers started the first two games by scoring the first goals of each matchup, but they couldn't hang on to those leads and LA showed they are like that zombie that never dies, as they just keep coming and coming like something out of the Walking Dead. The Rangers have been in position to rally before and while the odds will be against them, they showed they can handle adversity with the way they played against the Penguins and they came back from a 3-1 deficit in that series and now they have the chance to rally back from two games again.
The Rangers can hang their Broadway hat on the fact that the Kings have only led for .2 seconds of this entire series, basically the .1 second it takes for an overtime goal to go in and that should keep the team confident. Apart from a couple of horrible, just horrible calls from officials, the team has been the better club and now they have to try and use their speed as an advantage as the series gets deeper. Despite Jonathan Quick playing great, the Rangers have the better goalie and apart from a couple of lapses, they easily could be up 2-0 in this series.
The team is going to have to fight some history and some bad odds to win the Cup, but there is no reason to think they can't tie things up. The Cup has been decided 32 of 35 times over the past 35 for the home team when they go up 2-0, but those other comebacks came in recent years, as the Penguins and the Bruins each rallied from 2-0 back to win. The Rangers are as resilient as the Kings and LA's luck cannot keep going on forever, but I guess it's not really luck when the referees literally give away goals and then don't make correct calls that lead to winning overtime goals. The Kings are resilient, but they are also lucky and they have not been the better team in this series.
Check here for the Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers Stanley Cup finals live coverage from NBC for the title.