By
Steve Kallas (posted by Rick Morris)
By
now you’ve probably seen the play a number of times (it’s available at CBS Eye
on Hockey). Canadiens-Rangers, Rangers
up in games 3-2, Game 6, 2nd period, scoreless as Montreal comes
across the blue line (about 4:55 left in the second period). Thomas Vanek of the Canadiens, moving from his
right to left towards the Rangers goal, goes to his backhand (to Lundqvist’s
right) and is in virtually all alone.
The
next closest player to the goal (besides, of course, The King) is Michael
Bournival (#49), who is on the other side of the net, all by himself.
Dan
Girardi makes a great diving play (laying out with his stick extended on the
ice) to stop what looks like, on multiple reviews, a pass across the crease
from Vanek to Bournival. Lundqvist is
already sliding over, seeing the attempted pass, to the other side of the
net.
But
Girardi deflects the puck into the air and it’s headed into the goal at the
spot vacated by Lundqvist as he is moving to the other side. Almost miraculously, and with world-class
reflexes that are hard to imagine, The King swings his right (stick) arm to his
right (while moving left), loses his goalie stick, and somehow bats the puck,
which is in mid-air, away from the goal.
Without
question one of the greatest saves ever (maybe the greatest save ever?). It clearly was not one of those “lucky” great
saves where a goalie, for example, is sliding over to try and stop a shot, his
body getting over there too late, but the shot hits the shaft of the goalie’s
stick and is deflected from going in.
WHY
WAS IT SO IMPORTANT?
Well,
you probably know (especially if you are a long-time Ranger fan) why it was so
important. With a poor performance by
both The King and the Rangers in a 7-4 loss in Game 5 (despite the comeback to
tie from 4-1 down), the Rangers needed to score first and not go back to Montreal
for a Game 7.
The
Rangers, up 3-1 in the series, lose Game 5 and, if the Canadiens score first in
Game 6, while you never know what would have happened, you had the feeling that
whichever team scored first was going to win Game 6. We’ll never know, of course, but just a few
minutes later, quiet hero Dominic Moore scored the game’s only goal on a
beautiful pass from Brian Boyle, beating coming-of-age goaltender Dustin
Tokarski for what proved to be the game’s only goal.
Rangers
1, Canadiens 0. Stanley Cup Final for
the first time in 20 years.
WHERE
DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Well,
the Rangers will be an underdog to whichever team (the Kings or the Blackhawks)
comes out of the West. Both are
formidable opponents, both with Stanley Cup victories in recent years (Chicago
in 2013 and 2010 ; LA in 2012 ).
Both
have Cup-winning goalies in Chicago’s Corey Crawford (in 2013) and LA’s
Jonathan Quick (in 2012; also the Conn Smythe Trophy winner for MVP of the
playoffs).
That
is something that the Rangers don’t have and plenty of championship-winning
experience is certainly something a team would like to have going into the Cup
Finals.
But
if you buy into the team of destiny stuff (the passing of Martin St. Louis’s
mother – and hasn’t St. Louis put to bed all of the questions about the Ryan
Callahan trade?), the great play (with a few exceptions) of Henrik Lundqvist,
who is as good or better than the remaining goalies in the playoffs (despite
not winning the Cup yet) and the inspired play of the Rangers and the inspired
coaching of Alain Vigneault (he, unlike John Tortorella, allows his players
(read: Chris Kreider) to make defensive mistakes because he knows that comes
with the package of a gifted offensive player), well, the Rangers have put
themselves in a good position to win their fifth Stanley Cup.
WHAT
ABOUT THE RANGER FANS?
Well,
I’ve heard a lot of non-hockey people talk about how Ranger fans are saying
“The Cup is ours this year” or things like that.
This
writer, a Ranger fan (as a little kid) since the days of the six-team NHL, once
upon a time was happy (as were many Ranger fans during those dark days) when
the lowly Rangers could beat out the lowly Bruins for fifth place (and, of
course, not make the playoffs). Then the
Rangers finally made the playoffs in 1966-67, were swept by the powerful
Canadiens in the first round – and received a standing ovation from the Garden
faithful at the “old” Madison Square Garden (for you real old-timers, that was
when, in OT, Red Berenson of the Rangers hit the post and big, bad John
Ferguson of the Canadiens scored the game-winner to eliminate the Rangers).
If
you’ve lived through any part of the 54-year drought that ended in 1994, you
know better than to publicly say things like the Rangers will win the Cup this
year. In fact, the true Ranger fan, in
1994, was still holding his/her breath with 1.6 seconds left, before that final
face-off to Mike Richter’s right, knowing full well that anything could happen.
In
fact, many of us, for the last 20 years, thought indeed that Sam Rosen was
right, in that “This one [the ’94 Cup] will last a lifetime.” But, thankfully, 20 years later, we can hope
(hope, not know) that a second Cup in “our” lifetime is, at least, a
possibility.
So,
yes, the Rangers are in the Finals and they certainly have a chance to
win. But I find it hard to believe that
any long-time Ranger fan who understands the game will come out with such
blanket statements.
The
Stanley Cup Final starts on Wednesday.
@
COPYRIGHT 2014 BY STEVE KALLAS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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