Rangers vs. Capitals Playoff Preview

It’s not going to be possible to stop AO, Green, Backstrom and Semin entirely obviously. But if the Rangers can bring the play to the Caps and limit time spent in their own zone it will be a series.

One more thing.

Mike Green better win the Norris Trophy.

It’s probably not Tom Poti’s groin that hurts.. I’d still rather him him than Redden though. I’d rather have Poti and a case of a curable STD than Redden

But I think the guys at Japers Rink did a pretty good analysis of the series.

If you go to the Capitals blog, jaspers rink or something, they have a side by side comparison between the two teams- in categories, and the team with the most checks in the category win that category. the guy who wrote it gave the Rangers more category wins, but gave the Capitals better overall. its pathetic really. If your own blogger gives the other team better stats, but doesn’t give them the win overall (obviously not, because its a caps blog and you don’t want to seem unhopeful), that says something – like he believes the Rangers will win, but doesn’t want to say something.

Hi. I’m the guy who wrote that.

First, it’s Japers’ Rink, not Jaspers. Second, the fact that Rangers came out ahead in three of the seven categories while the Capitals came out it too doesn’t mean the Ranger have the edge per se because it doesn’t account for how much of a difference there is between the teams. The edge I gave the Rangers in penalty kill (one mark) is not the same as the edge I gave the Capitals in powerplay (four marks), for example.

On a whole the Capitals have 25 checks and the Rangers 23, so I don’t there’s any inconsistency in saying that although the Rangers may have the edge in more categories, the Capitals bigger advantages in the categories give them the edge for the series.

The Rangers can easily score more goals against Theodore, than the Capitals could score on Lundqvist.

Neither have very good numbers against each other…quite frankly they’re both down right horrible.

Lundqvist: 1-1-1 3.57 GAA .882 SA%
Theodore: 2-0-1 3.05 GAA .886 SA%

Buuuut Jose isn’t known as the King…and there is a reason he’s called the King.

To win the series, your Rangers are going to need Lundqvist to play to his full potential…if he doesn’t, me thinks the Caps are going to take the series in 5.

As for the goal scoring/points production. I think you raise a fair point about it being a brand new season. But if there is one thing that the Rangers lack, it is offense. Granted the Rags have much more playoff experience than the Caps, but they are also one of a handful of teams that do not have a 30 goal scorer, and no one produced 60 points.

All people talk about is the Capitals offense and the Rangers lack of offense. That is a lie.

I suppose it’s how you define the word “lie”, but personally, I think it’s a fair point to bring up. The Rangers had the 2nd fewest goals per game in the entire league with a paltry 2.42…that’s or 3/4 of a goal less than the Caps.

Buuut, as I mentioned above, if Lundqvist plays to his potential, the playing field…or ice…levels out.

/just my 2 cents
//not trying to start a flame war…I started reading here today and look forward to doing more over the next week
///go Mets

it doesn’t mean they can’t score when they need to.

Are you suggesting that the Rangers forwards have saved all their goals for better use in the playoffs? If they did that would be one hell of a risk considering they just barely squeaked into the playoffs and only made it because they won 10 skills competitions shootouts.

The Rangers only won 30 games in regulation compared to 40 by the Caps. This doesn’t bode well in the playoffs where real hockey determines the winner.

Ovechkin is a firey guy who may drop the gloves. Taking him out of the game for 10 minutes could be a key to stealing a game or two.

Ovechkin has only dropped the gloves once in his career, and that was against Mike Richards in a preseason game his rookie year. He understands his value on the ice and would not drop the gloves unless he absolutely believed it would spark the team.

As for Avery, I think he’d have more success trying to get under Semin’s skin than Ovechkin’s. Ovechkin relishes these one-on-one matchups and generally thrives in them. Semin is a little bit more of a headcase and might not respond well to a pest chirping in his ear all game (although he did not shy away from the physicality of the Philly series last year).

lesson learned.