Rangers Make the Playoffs!

The Rangers make the playoffs with their win over the Devils and the Hurricanes loss to Tampa Bay. Clutch doesn't even begin to describe Drury's first goal of the year and McDonagh's career first. The Rags could have panicked following Kovy's goal, but Captain Clutch willed the puck into the net, picked up his team, his crowd, and completely changed momentum. He didn't play too many minutes, but he dominated in the faceoff circle and made it clear that the Rangers are a better team with him in the lineup. More on them in a minute.

Choke doesn't even begin to describe Carolina's effort last night. Tampa Bay started Mike Smith in net. Mike. Smith. If any NHL goaltender deserves to be unemployed it's him. He thinks he's a forward and fires the puck end to end whenever he gets the chance (he tried to score on the empty net but failed. Close though.). Carolina made Smitty look like the second coming of Ken Dryden. They couldn't take advantage of his patented "I'm going to lay down in a stack pad while the puck's at the point and hope it gets blocked on the way in" style of play, and let a superb first period effort by Cam Ward slip away. They looked nervous, scared, and fully aware that they were blowing it. After going down 3-0 early, they gave a good effort to try and get back into it but came up short. Good season Canes. I like that group down there and the Caniacs are great, but there was no way the Rangers could possibly get screwed out on game 82 two years in a row.

Now on to the important matter at hand: the playoffs. Rangers-Capitals, round one. Unlike in recent years, this Washington team seems better prepared for the playoffs. They also have played the Rangers in the postseason enough to know that Henrik can't catch and they can beat him up top. Our chances may be slim, but this Ranger squad does nothing but battle. Maybe Washington's young goaltenders will feel the pressure. Maybe Ovechkin tries to do too much again and kills his team in the process. Maybe injuries to their defense corps will slow them down. Maybe I'm grasping at straws, but no matter what, we're heading to the best time of the year and the Rangers are still in the picture.