Rangers bring many weapons into heavyweight clash with Hurricanes
NY Post
This is Alcaraz and Sinner in the second round at Wimbledon. This is a matchup that comes at least a series too soon in the Stanley Cup playoffs. This is a heavyweight battle between teams with the best and third-best records in the NHL that comes already as an early-spring delight.
These are the 114-point Rangers and 111-point Hurricanes in Game 1 of Round 2 at the Garden on late Sunday afternoon in yet another test for the Presidents’ Trophy winners that has overcome every challenge they have been confronted with for going on seven months.
The Carolina organization probably thinks victory is its birthright here in the sixth year of a program under head coach Rod Brind’Amour in which the club has won a total of seven playoff rounds while creating an identifiable brand and style of constant puck pressure across the 200×85 and an offense based on attempt volume while shuttling everything to the net.
The Canes are poised. But you know when the Canes were also poised? It was on March 12, when the Rangers were in Raleigh, leading Carolina by two points with both teams having 18 games to go. The Blueshirts were on the second night of a back-to-back and without Matt Rempe, serving the first of his four-game suspension for having caught Jonas Siegenthaler with an elbow in the head the previous night.
Carolina had been chasing the Rangers since the last week of October. This was the chance to do it. The final score of the game was 1-0.
It was 1-0 Rangers, on Adam Fox’s goal in the final minute of the first period.
RALEIGH, N.C. — Igor Shesterkin and the Rangers have experienced it from all sides the past three springs. They have overcome a 3-1 series deficit by winning an overtime Game 7 at home. They have overcome a 3-2 deficit to win a Game 7 on the road. They have lost a 2-0 series lead in dropping four straight. They have lost another 2-0 lead before losing in seven. And they have swept.