Brendan Shanahan, right, arguably the classiest player in the league, is always a force to be reckoned with. He's got miles of heart, and his huge body will do ANYTHING to w
in the game. Think of him as a bigger stronger, older Drury. Drury's still faster and more clutch though.Jaromir Jagr has been playing some of the best hockey of his career lately. He has been compared to his Pittsburgh Cup winning teams lately. He is a European, though...usually, a few bumps early on takes him from the game. I'm willing to bet the Rangers are looking for that and will respond.
Peter Prucha was silent last series, but he's a fast, accurate sniper who WILL pose danger unless we lay the smack down on him or are CONSISTANTLY taking away his shooting lanes.
Michael Nylander is an underrated player, much like Antoine Vermette of Ottawa. Extremely good puck handlers and deceptively quick with the puck. Rarely do you see him make a bad giveaway. Not a TERRIBLE backchecker, either. Did I mention he leads the league in points at the moment?
Ryan Callahan may be the offensive X-factor for this series for the Rangers. This Rochester boy is very fast, though small, and has a pretty good eye for the puck. Think of him as a less talented and explosive Daniel Briere. We can't take him for granted.
Henrik Lundqvist only started against Buffalo once this season. But, that's ancient history anyways, since the last time we played them was December 1st, and their record has been nearly identical to ours since that point. He's made some DAZZLING saves, but really hasn't been tested in a closely contested game against Atlanta. That's his only drawback so far. Oh, yeah, his skills at handling the puck...pretty deplorable. Dump and chase will work much better against this team.
NYR defense is pretty big. Only one player is really slow, in Marek Malik. Malik's size more than makes up for it, however. His reach is phenomenal and he will take the body to the boards at most opportunities. I don't think we should battle in the corners on him for much.
While the Rangers will finish checks, mostly their defenders and fourth line, I don't expect any dirty play this series. The Rangers are pretty clean, even Ryan Hollweg. At worst, he's known for borderline hits, which I think is more than reasonable from a big fourth liner.
Buffalo Keys:
The RAV line, Stafford, Connolly, and Hecht are going to be the most important contributors to this series.
The Rangers will be trying to contain Briere and Pominville, with their scoring abilities, so Jochen will have to finish his shots and be even better than he was.
Stafford will need to continue to play the game he played last series. I wouldn't say no to him scoring more, though. He is a huge part of that fourth line and he's going to have to get on Avery...I'm sure Avery will be sent out to bother Connolly. The rook's gonna have to get up in Avery's grill.
Connolly needs to expose the fourth line of the Rangers. We need almost a goal a game from them in this series, and with Mair playing the way he has been and Stafford's ability around the net, I don't think I'm expecting too much. Connolly's been a pleasant surprise, but I'm still not sold on his noggin.
The RAV needs to control the puck without giveaways and not get caught in the Offensive zone or the Neutral Zone cherry picking (ahem, Max, ahem). Vanek needs to find a way to play with Max like he does with Stafford. Max needs to pass the puck more and not carry it. Roy hasn't been bad and he hasn't been good. We need his form from the last 20 games of the season, however.
Defense:
Garrett, on the previous post, asked a question which many will surely be thinking. "do you think we should play that collapsable 1-2-2 trap we did for so long"
Well, Garrett, in a word, ABSOLUTELY. In the short time we did use it, about 8 games, we shut down the opposition and still scored about four goals a game. I don't need to see 5,6,7 goals scored by the Sabres, especially when the opposition scores 3 or more.
Buffalo allowed 3 or more goals in about fifty games this season. Only three teams allowed less goals of the 16 teams that advanced to the tournament. To me, that signifies that 3 or 4 goals a game and a solid defense is more important.
The versatile 1-2-2 defense we played really knocked a lot of offenses for a loop. I've never seen a trap mobilize off a transition offense in my life, and I really liked the way it worked. Because of the amount of skating that is done for it, though, and knowing Ruff, I wouldn't be surprised if he's saving the defense that hasn't been seen for a tougher series or when they get down in a game.
I'll answer your other questions in the next post, to save the length. As well as a game 1 recap.
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