Rangers Suffer Soul Crushing Loss and Now Face Elimination

By Djack

Once again, the New York Rangers find themselves on the sour end of an OT loss after blowing another late lead. Out of all the leads they've blown this postseason this could be the one that proves fatal. Every other time they've managed to bounce back, but this loss was brutal. Fortunately, the Rangers have home ice advance to lean on in game 6, which has helped them regain momentum throughout the playoffs. 

The Rangers need their big name stars to start playing like stars if they want to win this series. If it wasn't for the other guys like Jimmy Vesey, Oscar Lindbergh, Mika Zibanejad, and Jesper Fast making big plays for this squad, this series might already be over. Kreider, Nash, Zucc, Stepan, and Stall need to step up in games 6 and 7 if the Rangers are going to advance. Anyone watching this series, no matter who you are rooting for, knows the Rangers are the better overall team and should be entering game 6 at home with a 3-2 series lead. This is the second game they've blow late in the 3rd and then lost in OT, so actually the Rangers should be resting right now awaiting the Capitals or Penguins in the conference finals. A huge opportunity is being missed, now if the Rangers do make it to the next round they'll be just as tired and beat up as the Capitals or Penguins. That's if they even make it to the next round.

Even after this soul crushing defeat I have faith the Rangers will win this series. Erik Karlsson, is clearly the best player in the series even when he's banged up, but overall the Rangers are the better team by far. Game 6 they'll win without a doubt, probably feed off the crowd to a nice blowout win like in games 3 and 4. Game 7 will be the tough one, they should've won today, and still managed to loss, so winning game 7 on the road is going to be a real challenge. Still like the Rangers to win it all this year, I believe it's their year still, however they're making it real tough on themselves. Let's see if the Rangers got any more postseason magic left to win the next two games to advance to the conference finals.