Now here we are……..
It is Wednesday already and time for Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers. The Rangers and Devils are knotted at two because mostly New Jersey found a way to play their game in part four. There is this feeling that neither team can seem to put together two games in these playoffs, particularly the Rangers. New Jersey just has to do a better job playing third period defense than they did in Games 1 and 3. That is what gets lost in the shuffle here. It always seems to. There are some defininte changes if you are keeping score or at least trying to anyway.
With Brandon Prust back in the lineup, that should help make the Rangers’ lines more cohesive at the very least. More importantly, the Rangers will be playing on their choppy ice which does seem to get progressively worse as the game goes on. It is just fact ladies and gentlemen. New York takes advantage ot this home ice better than most anyone. The reality is the bottom line is you have to play with what you are dealt with and what will be interesting tonight is who scores first. That will very likely determine the winner as 15 of the 18 games in the Rangers postseason, the team that draws first blood wins.
Last night the Los Angeles Kings won it ugly but Dustin Penner scored late in overtime to send the Kings onward to the Stanley Cup Finals. Phoenix had LA on the ropes but let them off time and time again. In the end, the 4-3 LA win was more about how Phoenix lost its composure after the questionable Dustin Brown hit. Who was our Fantasy POTN? This was a very tough choice but here it goes…..
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FANTASY POTN:
Dustin Penner, LW, Los Angeles Kings
Penner has been killed all year and been made fun of the whole “pancake injury”. If he is motivated, Dustin Penner is the perfect power forward to have in the playoffs. Clearly this King is engaged in the action and last night he was in the right place at the right time. His overtime goal was more about positioning than anything else. Penner found a spot in the slot and sat there. He converted the chance and now the Kings are in the Stanley Cup Finals. Penner’s two points of course are nothing compared to the game winning goal and series clincher at that. Remember in some leagues, series clinchers do get some bonus points.
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SCHEDULE TIME:
Wednesday, May 23, 2012 |
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| Teams | Notes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Jersey | at | NY Rangers | 8:00 PM | Gameday | ||
Well this is must win time for both teams actually and there is no retreat or no surrender. That first period was horrendous and cannot happen again for the Rangers. 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. If New York lets Jersey play their style, there is no way New York can keep up. This is what it comes down to…imposing your will. New Jersey must keep finishing chances on a more regular basis while shutting down the Rangers power play which was held scoreless in Game 4 but only had one power play chance. Expect that to change as New York will get a few more calls in MSG. That is not acceptable while the Rangers simply have to do more of what they did in Games 1 and 3. The Devils have to do more of what they executed in Games 2 and 4. It is a tale of two series…..
Here is our sim for tonight……
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NHL 12 Sim — Devils @ Rangers Game 5
What are we going to do? Simply, we are going to run the NHL 12 sims for Game 5. The Rangers and Devils are fairly even in theory. It is all the intangibles that will play out throughout the rest of 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 4
1st Period
NYR – Brad Richards (3:49, PP, Gaborik and Del Zotto)
2nd Period
No scoring
3rd Period
NYR – Marian Gaborik (10:02, Richards and Girardi)
Team Stats:
Shots
NYR- 30, NJD- 28
Power Plays
NYR- 1/4, NJD- 0/4
Final: Rangers 2 Devils 0
3 Stars:
1. Henrik Lundqvist 2. Brad Richards 3. Marian Gaborik
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.
