2022 Stanley Cup playoffs thread

Not as much interest in the Rangers-Lightning series on here as the Western conference series.

Couldn't have asked for a better game 1. That's the Filip Chytil everyone had given up on ever seeing. If you've watched a lot of Rangers for the last 5 years, you have been waiting for that type of player, and I'd say in the last 2 years, people had given up on it ever happening. They have decisions in the off season, and I thought Chytil was going to be a goner for sure. Now? The thing is, he's been around for a long time (third longest tenured Ranger), but he's only 22. I think sometimes those draft picks come over at 17 or 18, they aren't ready yet, and it just takes time. I also think a lot of players have gotten ruined because of that, their confidence takes a hit, and maybe they would have been better off staying in Europe for a few more years before stepping up to the NHL.

What was fantastic about that one long shift where the Rangers had Tampa pinned in their zone and then Chytil scored on the cross ice pass, was that 4 of the players on the ice were 22 or younger, and the fifth, Adam Fox is only 24. K'Andre Miller is getting lost in all of it, but defensively he is really good, he has long arms and a lot of speed, and offensively he has added a ton of confidence to go with his skill. I saw this all developing with the rebuild and have been excited about their next 5, 6 years at lesat, but nobody could have seen them being at this stage yet. I was thinking another year or two out and they could win a cup.

Who knew that the book on beating Vasilevskiy is 12 inches off the ice, just over the pad? It's clear that they were aiming for that spot, hitting it the way they did several times is another story. On the Vatrano shot, I think Vasilevskiy was caught off guard, his focus was on Kreider in front for a possible tip, because of how often the Rangers have scored that way. They were not only dangerous, they were unpredictable and it led to a great win. I said before the playoffs started that I didn't think the Rangers could beat Carolina, I was actually less afraid of Tampa having seen the two teams play the last 2, 3 years. Tampa wins, so I don't mean that in a disrespectful way, but that man-on-man defense and Carolina ugly style of play is difficult for the Rangers to deal with and it takes away a lot of their skill. That's why their ability to grind out the series was impressive. I didn't think they could do it. Against Tampa, they can play more like themselves, and it's more a matter of which team is going to beat the other. Doesn't mean the Rangers will win, but I thought it gave them a shot. It's just one game, and Tampa will come back hard, but I was ecstatic last night.

 

Yup. You can kind of throw the regular season games out, but the Rangers have played Tampa really well the last few seasons.

In the three this year, one was a shootout, could have gone either way. Another was a PP goal with like 15 seconds left to win it. The other was 4-0 win.

Mika killed them in those games. In the 4-0 game, he had a hat trick. In the shootout game, he scored the shootout goal that won it. And in the other one, he scored the winning goal with seconds left.

 

Not that it has anything to do with this BUT the Caps were 0-3 vs. Vegas (two regular season and first game of SCF) before ripping off four straight and giving me my biggest highlight as a sports fan.