Rangers Repeat!

New York, NY. The New York Rangers have reached the Stanley Cup Finals for the second time in a row. Entering the playoffs this season as holders of only the first wild card spot, the Broadway Blueshirts easily eliminated the Boston Bruins in Round 1 and the Detroit Red Wings in Round 2 by 4-1 games respectively . In the Conference Finals, the Rangers stole both games in Washington before New Yorkʼs home winning streak was snapped at the worst time possible. The Blueshirts then raced back from a 2-3 deficit to win the series in a seven-game thriller. In the Stanley Cup Finals, the Rangers face off against the Dallas Stars.

One thing is already different from a year ago, when New York reached the final as league leaders and went down to the Anaheim Ducks 0-4: The Rangers have already won two games and now face a best-of-3 series to win the Cup after currently standing at 2-2. However, one thing is also comparable to last year: The Rangers will have to make do without the services of key contributors. While in last yearʼs final, Cale Makar was absent due to injury, now team captain Chris Kreider and defenseman Ryan Lindgren are now highly unlikely to return to the squad before the end of the series.

Game 5 takes place in Dallas. Rangers head coach Jon Cooper has been forced to make major changes to the defensive pairings as well as to lines 3 and 4. Defenseman Libor Hajek from the Hartford Wolf Pack has been called up and currently is a healthy scratch, while his colleague Kevin Bahl is already on the pro roster. Among the forwards, Filip Chytil has been promoted from line 3 to line 2, and backup winger Henrik Zetterlund has been inserted into the fourth line.