When they face the Lightning in Game 4, The New York Rangers want to compete at a better level.

The New York Rangers understand the difficulty

TAMPA — The New York Rangers did not enter the Eastern Conference Final with a naivety that led them to underestimate the difficulty of eliminating the team that had won the Stanley Cup for the previous two seasons in a row. They were aware of the difficulty of the task. They are now aware of how difficult of a job they will be required to complete.

The Rangers defeated the Lightning at home in Games 1 and 2 but were unable to keep up with them in Game 3, which took place at Amalie Arena on Sunday and ended in a 3-2 loss for the Rangers. Ahead of Tuesday’s Game 4, which will air at 8 p.m. Eastern Time on ESPN, ESPN+, CBC, SN, and TVAS, they have a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series.

Coach Gerard Gallant

On Monday, the coach Gerard Gallant remarked, “We know they are not going to give you anything for free.” “They have won, what, ten series in a straight in a row now? We won’t have a choice but to take it away from them. We are going to need to have a really strong team effort. It is going to be necessary for us to go out there and take it from them.” The New York Rangers were able to anticipate the level of competition that the Lightning would bring to Game 3 according to their previous experiences of playing on the losing side in each of the prior two rounds of the playoffs.But they weren’t prepared to compete with it at that point.

The lightning shots

The Lightning had 52 shots compared to the Rangers’ 30, including a 19-6 advantage in the third period. Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider scored on the power play to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead halfway through the second period, but it just served to infuriate the Lightning more than it already had. Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos scored while on the penalty play for Tampa Bay, tying the game, and Ondrej Palat scored the game-winning goal 19 minutes and 18 seconds into the third period to give Tampa Bay the victory.

According to Gallant, “I simply believe that they were ready to compete a bit harder than we were.” “The outcome of the hockey game was determined by this factor. You can talk about matches, you can talk about various things, but I believe that in general, their level of competition was a bit greater than ours was. The next day, we need to perform at or above that level.”

Again, the Rangers should know exactly what to expect from the Lightning in Game 4 since they were in that situation in both the Eastern Conference First Round and the Eastern Conference Second Round when they were down 3-1 against the Pittsburgh Penguins and 2-0 against the Carolina Hurricanes.

They overcame adversity and defeated Pittsburgh in Games 5, 6, and 7 by prevailing in come-from-behind fashion in each of those contests. They were able to come back and draw the series against Carolina, but then they went on to lose Game 5 after having their poorest performance of the series. However, they were able to bounce back and win Games 6 and 7 by a combined score of 11-4.

The New York Rangers to win

Gallant said that the team needed to “compete, we needed to struggle, and we needed to play a bit grittier than we did.” “It’s 2-2 or it’s 3-1, let’s see where it goes,” the commentator said.

In order for the Rangers to make it 3-1, they cannot allow the Lightning to have the puck for as long in Game 3 as they did.

The New York Rangers

won Game 1 by a score of 6-2 because they held possession of the puck for most of the game and caused turnovers when they didn’t have it. They were successful in controlling at least the first part of Game 2 due to the same factors.

Review of previous games

Game 2

Midway through the second period of Game 2, the Lightning started to control the pace and puck possession, as well as managing it significantly better. However, the Rangers got a goal from Zibanejad 1:21 into the third period to take a 3-1 lead that they did not relinquish, and they eventually won the game 3-2.

Game 3

But the Lightning never stopped attacking during Game 3, which caused the Rangers to take a step back. Because Kucherov scored at 10:50 of the second period, New York’s 2-0 advantage only lasted for 66 seconds until it was overturned. When Stamkos scored at 1 minute and 22 seconds into the third period, the Rangers’ advantage of 2-1 was no more.

The score remained tied at 2-2 for the next 17 minutes and 56 seconds, despite the Lightning seeming to have the upper hand. They had the puck. They were operating in the attacking zone while they played. They were creating new opportunities. Even when they had the opportunity to capitalize offensively with a power play in the third period, the Rangers were unable to accomplish much of anything.

Andrew Copp, a forward for the Rangers, claimed that since the other team scored early on the power play,

The New York Rangers

were unable to go back to playing offensive hockey like they normally would. “I’m not sure whether we went into this attempting to take a defensive stance or not. That did not seem to be the topic of discussion at all. We are aware that scoring the third goal would be crucial, just as it was in Game 2, but once they scored the goal that tied the game, we were simply unable to get ourselves moving north and attacking.”

Game 4 sensitivity

In Game 4, they are well aware that this is the one thing they cannot deviate from doing at any point. It was this strategy that they used to come back against the Hurricanes and the Penguins. If they can do it again, they will put themselves in a position to leave here one win away from reaching the Stanley Cup Final with a chance to do it in Game 5 at Madison Square Garden, where they have won eight consecutive playoff games in a row in the past. If they can do it again, they will put themselves in a position to leave here one win away from reaching the Stanley Cup Final.

But this is the Lightning, who are the reigning Stanley Cup winners and have won it twice before. Holding them down and stopping them from coming back might prove to be the Rangers’ most difficult test yet, possibly even more difficult than having to face elimination five times in the previous two rounds.

Forward Ryan Reaves was quoted as saying on the Lightning, “You don’t want to give a club like them any breathing space.” “You have no choice except to bury them as soon as you can.”

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