Rangers might be getting in Tampa's head a little. They beat them in all their regular season games and now in game 1. The Lightning for 2 years have had an advantage in the playoffs. Their goalie was always better. That is not the case in this series.
Rangers are dangerous if all their lines play like they did in game one. I expect Tampa to come out and push hard in game 2. That said they're not the defensive blanket Carolina was.
I think the Rangers steamroll through TB. They are on fire. I’ve never seen a Rangers team play like this. They are way better than the 2014 team
I wouldn’t go that far that team got screwed by the officials twice in the finals or they easily could’ve won the cup. I still think they’re going to need Blais before this thing is over
I think Shesterkin puts enough doubt in other teams that they maybe lose a little confidence and start thinking too much which helps the Rangers.
I expect the Bolts to try and come out playing a hard, physical game which would work against every previous Rangers team for the last 2 decades, this team has been built for that challenge by Drury. I don't see predicting the Rangers winning a series against a team they are 4-0 against this year is so far fetched.
Agreed - not far fetched at all. Debating whether the series is over after one game, and talking about oh I picked the Rangers after one game, as if it is done, is far fetched. This will be a long fun series IMO. As a fan, sit back and enjoy.
Kucherov seemed to sulk when Shesterkin stoned him a few times early in the game. Almost like he was entitled to score on every goalie he plays. I don't buy that rusty crap either because of the layoff. As I said before. The Lightning's biggest reason for winning 2 cups is that they have always had an advantage in goal vs. the teams they play. That is not the case in this series and they know it. The Rangers have been prepared well by their last 2 series. Carolina was one of the best defensive teams with size, speed and good faceoff players. Pitt had powerful top line, great faceoff guys and a ton of playoff experience. There is nothing that Tampa is going to do that the Rangers haven't seen in these playoffs at this point. Florida and Toronto are both high powered offenses but they are extremely sloppy defensively and their goaltending is average. Tampa took advantage of that. Defensively the Rangers can get sloppy sometimes but their goalie is elite and usually bails them out. If the Rangers stay healthy especially with Igor, they have a great chance to win this series. Unfortunately, because Parros is an incompetent dumb bastard, there is a trend developing in the playoffs. When teams can't solve a goalie, they just start crashing into him. This is where you have to hand out 25 to 40 game suspensions to players if the goalie suffers a long term injury. However, Parros and the league are imbeciles which is why you see shit like this continuing to happen.
Per draft kings they have Colorado thr overwhelming favorite (-155) followed by Tampa (+380) then the Rangers (+400)
TB will be better than they were in Game 1. Rangers better be ready. Stay out of the penalty box and don't let TB get extended shifts/time in the offensive zone.
