A familiar position for New York, but a different situation

NEW YORK – The New York Rangers find themselves in a familiar position. For the third time in as many series this spring, they are facing a 3-2 deficit.

They erased a 3-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in the previous round and even overcame a 3-1 deficit to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round. They are 5-0 on the verge of elimination.

READ ALSO : Tampa Bay escapes with victory at MSG

What’s different this time is that they just saw the Lightning win three straight, after leading the series 2-0.

The two-time defending Stanley Cup champions are on a roll and know how to close the books on a series, having won 10 in succession.

Add to that that history tells us that the team that wins Game 5 of a series wins 78.5 percent of the time.

« It’s nothing new, we’ve been down 3-2 in all series, » said the forward. Andrew Copp, without even being asked. “We will need to be driven by a strong sense of urgency.

« The confidence level is higher than thinking we have to do it again, » he said. We believe in it. We have just delivered a strong match. We are playing well and the series is very close. We have to get the last big play that makes the difference in the end. »

Here is the problem. The big plays, it’s the Lightning who succeeds.

« This defeat hurts, but the series is not over, » said the defender in turn Jacob Trouba. “We’ve been there. Just go win in Tampa and come back here. You have to tackle the matches one at a time. »

The bruised prey, the Lightning has liquidated them one after the other for two years.

« I expect the Rangers to play their best game ever, » Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. With the guys they have behind the bench, they’ll be ready. Gerard Gallant is quite a coach. The Rangers are a better team than they were before the playoffs started. They kept improving as the games progressed. I expect nothing less than a colossal effort from them.

« We’d be naive to think it’s in the bag just because we’re going home to play, » Cooper said. This is nothing new for us. We have closed several series with quite a bit of success, but we have not always succeeded. The goal is to win the series, no matter how many games.

“We haven’t won anything yet. It’s only 3-2. Rangers have proven they can turn the tide and we keep our eyes peeled because we know they can do the same to us,” the manager concluded.