Why It Would Be Surprising If New York Rangers Don't Make The Cup Final

The besieged Boston Bruins made no secret of how much they wanted Sunday’s tilt with the New York Rangers, as well they should have. In turn, the Blueshirts made their share of errors and this ultimately looked more like a battle between the top two seeds in the Eastern Conference than a battle between teams separated by 10 points at the opening draw.

And yet the Rangers prevailed again, improving to 3-0-0 in their season series with the defending Stanley Cup champions, elevating their record to a league-best 42-15-7.

Look below the surface of both Sunday’s scoreboard and Monday’s standings and there is simply no reason to think the Rangers are not the runaway team to beat in the race for the Prince of Wales Trophy.

Head coach John Tortorella has had this team continuously thriving on a playoff-type approach, complete with a Vezina-caliber goaltender, boundless shot-blocking skaters, suffocating defensemen and scorers who make a lot out of relatively little when it matters most.

All of those elements were in play as part of a 4-3 win over a Boston team that indisputably needed this one more than New York and very well could have had it.

Never mind the fact that Boston is missing two of its most leaned-on point-getters in Nathan Horton and Rich Peverley. The Rangers are carrying on without their captain and second-leading point-getter, Ryan Callahan, whose tangible and intangible input is arguably more crucial to New York than either Horton or Peverley are to the Bruins.

Besides, Boston’s oft-frustrating stand-in Jordan Caron rose to the occasion for once and charged up his first multi-point game in his burgeoning NHL career.

In other words, the Bruins willed their way to a recently rare performance that actually justifies their posture as the second-most prolific offense in the league. And they played a role in giving goaltender Henrik Lundqvist a slightly uncharacteristic outing.

It still was not enough. The Rangers and their No. 11-ranked strike force bailed Lundqvist out when Derek Stepan beat Tim Thomas with 7:39 remaining in regulation, restoring the lead and the momentum only 39 seconds after David Krejci’s equalizer.

It was a nice way for the Blueshirts to return the favor to their backbone, who had done just enough to weather Boston’s 23-7 run in the shooting gallery between the 6:15 mark of the first period and the conclusion of the middle frame.

That run began when Bruins head coach Claude Julien did one of the things he does best by using his timeout as a means of reversing the momentum. His plan worked and, in turn, thrust some adversity in the faces of Tortorella’s pupils.

By day’s end, they had answered the challenge well enough to claim a full, two-point package.

The Bruins have deleted four different deficits over their first three meetings with the Rangers, including 2-0 and 3-2 potholes on Sunday. But Lundqvist has yet to let them raise the upper hand on a single occasion.

That’s not all. Lundqvist is 5-0-0 against the NHL’s top-dog offense from Philadelphia and has yet to give them more than two goals in a single encounter.

Pittsburgh’s No. 3 offense has been slightly more troublesome, but the Penguins and Rangers are so far tied in their season series after four meetings. Overall, leaving out the misfit Islanders, the Rangers play in the NHL’s single-most competitive division and are 9-3-1 against the three other playoff-bound Atlantic teams.

The Rangers will not win every titanic tangle, and Lundqvist will not be light’s out every night. But Sunday’s contest, among a few others, was as close as New York is going to get to accurately simulating a playoff matchup before the real dance begins.

The Bruins were trying to avert a pointless, two-game weekend and to assure themselves that they can surmount the Rangers at least once. For that reason, the host team needed to stock up on willpower, matching or exceeding that of the opponent.

For once, the data does not deceive. For every costly error they made, the Rangers recompensed. And for every time Boston threatened to seize the lead, the goalie gave no inches.

It is all plain and simple. New York has all of the requisite physicality to counter the likes of Boston and Philadelphia, the talent and tenacity on the home front to neutralize regal offenses and the fruitful determination to, even in the face of adversity, light the adversary’s lamp.

There is your classic winning playoff formula.

So until someone one-ups the Rangers at their own game, until someone can habitually circumvent the shot-blockers and the stopper, until someone can fatally daunt New York’s ostensibly shallow offense, there is no other favorite to triumph in the Eastern Conference.