Larry Brooks
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Blog: Slap Shots
Five of the last six Stanley Cup champions have been extended to at least six games in the opening round of the playoffs, with only the 2007 Ducks since the lockout able to quickly dispatch their first opponent.
In other words, there is no need to jump off the Rangers’ bandwagon simply because they have done no better than split the first four games of the tournament against the Senators.
They have maintained home ice with Game 5 coming up tomorrow night at the Garden and a Game 7 on Broadway on Thursday if one is necessary and if they can get there.
Brandon Dubinsky, getting checked during the Rangers’ 3-2 overtime loss in Game 4 Wednesday, and the Rangers need to start to play tougher if they want to advance in the playoffs." title="GET PHYSICAL: Brandon Dubinsky, getting checked during the Rangers’ 3-2 overtime loss in Game 4 Wednesday, and the Rangers need to start to play tougher if they want to advance in the playoffs." width="300" height="300" src="/rw/nypost/2012/04/20/sports/web_photos/20.1s089.Rangers--300x300.jpg" />
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GET PHYSICAL: Brandon Dubinsky, getting checked during the Rangers’ 3-2 overtime loss in Game 4 Wednesday, and the Rangers need to start to play tougher if they want to advance in the playoffs.
Ah, but that’s the rub, isn’t it? Because though the Rangers have not trailed Ottawa for so much as a second, they have yet to demonstrate they are capable of taking control of the series.
They’re the team that somehow always seems to be in jeopardy. They’re the team that’s pinned in its own end for shifts at a time, out-attempted by a mind-bending 235-146 over the last three games, though the third period of Wednesday’s Game 4, 3-2 overtime defeat didn’t quite fit that mold.
Ottawa is quick, fast, skilled and dangerous in open ice. But that’s no surprise.
It has however been a surprise, and troubling, that the Senators have been able to outmuscle the Rangers all over the ice and thus win far too many of the battles along the boards, in the corners and in Henrik Lundqvist’s crease that’s as jammed as the left turn lane onto 30th Street off 12th Avenue.
The Rangers’ literal strength in puck battles was one of their singular team strengths during the season. But not in this series and certainly not over the last three games, during which the Blueshirts have been forced back time and time again after failing to win the puck, get it in, or clear the zone.
It’s one thing for Jason Spezza or Kyle Turris to shine. It’s another for Chris Neil and Zenon Konopka to dominate.
He’s not the only one, but Brandon Dubinsky has to be stronger on the puck. Ryan Callahan needs to rediscover his Game 1 effectiveness in the dirty areas. Brandon Prust needs to be greasier.
And Marian Gaborik, hounded and marked and forced outside and to the top, needs to get to the high traffic areas from where he scored so many big goals the way he did during the regular season.
The Rangers have scored two even-strength goals in the last 201:30 and both of them were scored by Brian Boyle. That’s just not acceptable.
And because pretty goals are so difficult to come by in the playoffs, never mind the pair the Senators scored in Game 4, the Rangers must create the degree of difficult against the outstanding Craig Anderson as the Senators have been able to create against Lundqvist.
Coach John Tortorella either has to devise a more effective plan to stop Erik Karlsson from wheeling out of his own end up the ice as if he’s a latter-day Paul Coffey or the Rangers have to do a far better job of executing the strategy in place.
It’s not merely that Karlsson, so slippery, seems to be able to gain good ice at will through the neutral zone, it’s that the Rangers appear completely frustrated at their inability to contain the rover, who has unleashed 43 attempts and 27 shots over the last three games.
The Rangers have home ice. It’s there for them the way it was there for the Bruins last year, taken to seven in the first round by the Canadiens before the run to the Cup.
But the Rangers have to be better, they have to be stronger. They won’t get by playing this way.
larry.brooks@nypost.com
Brandon Dubinsky, Brandon Dubinsky, Rangers, Senators, Senators
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