It is Wednesday already and time for Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers. The Rangers are up one game to none after a 3-0 win on Monday Night that caused the blocked shot issue to become even more of one. It was blown up a bit earlier this morning when Martin Brodeur suggested maybe you have to shoot at them. Yes we paraphrased this for a reason. There is much worse that has been said and the reality is there are ways to beat it. New Jersey just has to do a better job playing defense than they did in Game 1. That is what gets lost in the shuffle here. It always seems to.
With the anticipated line changes (yes Parise-Zajac-Kovalchuk are back together), it will be interesting to see what happens here. Game 1 honestly saw Zach Parise get manhandled once again and at times it just looks like he is rattled by it. Maybe the time and space generated by Kovalchuk and Zajac will help him but I just do not see it. The Rangers are pretty much going with the same plan. Why would they need to change anything after all? Henrik Lundqvist could have sat there with a beach ball in the third period honestly. Nothing penetrated! The first ten to twenty minutes is going to tell us something tonight, that is a given.
Last night, in the Western Conference Final, the Los Angeles Kings may have put the exclamation point on the series already after they decimated the Phoenix Coyotes 4-0 in Phoenix. It was not a contest as LA outshot Phoenix 40-24 and survived a few questionable hits along the way. However our Fantasy POTN was someone who was along for the ride a bit on these playoffs but no longer. Here it goes…..
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FANTASY POTN:
Jeff Carter, F, Los Angeles Kings
“Get Carter!” This was probably heard ad nauseum. Carter was the difference as he lit a spart under the power play that was Boston-like dormant and nabbed a hat trick in the playoffs for the Kings. Basically it was a #99 like performance for LA. Jeff Carter was invisible in Game 1 but was extremely visible from the beginning in Game 2. The whole LA team was very much up front and personal with Phoenix and as a result, Carter was able to cash in on his opportunities. Those three goals may have cemented the series for LA. Bluntly, they did barring a miracle.
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SCHEDULE TIME:
Wednesday, May 16, 2012 |
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| Teams | Notes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Jersey | at | NY Rangers | 8:00 PM | Gameday | ||
Well it may be a must win Game 2 for New Jersey or a must need for a more respectable showing. That third period was horrendous and cannot happen again. A team cannot play the style of another and expect to win. It just never works. If New Jersey does not play their game tonight, New York will eventually just grind them down and win. This is what it comes down to…imposing your will.
Now it is time for the sim……
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NHL 12 Sim — Devils @ Rangers Game 2
What are we going to do? Simply, we are going to run the NHL 12 sims for Game 2. The Rangers and Devils are fairly even in theory. It is all the intangibles that will play out throughout this series that will ultimately determine it. It is time.
It comes down to the Battle Of The Hudson, this simulation just had to come as these always have fantasy purposes along with fun prognostication. We played a total of seven games and this is what we came up with for our prediction. Again keep in mind, this may not happen obviously. Simply the rivalry deserves the utmost of respect in how the sims are run. Here were our results.
Devils-Rangers Game 2
1st Period
No scoring
2nd Period
NYR – Brian Boyle (12:12, Prust and Del Zotto)
3rd Period
NYR – Marian Gaborik (15:55, Gaborik and Hagelin)
Team Stats:
Shots
NYR- 28, NJD- 23
Power Plays
NYR- 0/4, NJD- 0/3
Final: Rangers 2 Devils 0
3 Stars:
1. Brian Boyle 2. Marian Gaborik 3. Henrik Lundqvist
The game is just hours away and if it approaches anything like the sims, it will be an awfully good one. We literally had some more consensus on this one so who knows what that will ultimately mean. Can New Jersey play its style or will New York impose more of its will? Time will tell but the sims seemed to dictate more of the same tonight. Let’s see what happens and again thanks for reading.
