NY RANGERS @ TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
Take: NY RANGERS +120
It’s do or die tonight for the Rangers as they seek to make it to the Stanley Cup finals for the second straight season. A 2-0 Tampa Bay win at Madison Square Garden on Sunday now has the Lightning presented with the opportunity to close the show.
The Lightning have obviously managed to close out their prior two series against the Canadiens and Red Wings. Tampa Bay had to come back from a 3-2 deficit to get past Detroit. Against Montreal, the Lightning went up 3-0 but needed six games to finally send the Habs home.
The Rangers have relied on future Hall of Fame member Henrik Lundqvist to be at his absolute best in games like this. Lundqvist has a phenomenal record in elimination games. That ledger includes three straight wins this season as the Rangers were down 3-1 against the Capitals, and Lundqvist delivered each time.
Tampa Bay has been the better team in this series, so the Lightning being up 3-2 is not a fluke. The Rangers have had some blue line issues and their power play has been largely ineffective throughout the series. Based on the eye test, it’s not that tough to make a case for the home team tonight and goalie Ben Bishop should be brimming with confidence off the Game Five shutout.
I’m pretty much going all-in with Lundqvist with this opinion. It seems as though he usually finds a way to come up huge when the chips are down and it certainly wasn’t Hank’s fault the Rangers got blanked at home in Game Five. I’ll tab the Rangers as the side tonight as road dogs to send it back to MSG for a classic Game Seven finale.
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