OTT potent offense stakes them early leads if Hank continues to not be able to stop a beach ball .
OTT goes into NZT takes advantage of NYR NZ turnovers and inability to make crisp tape to tape passes and counter us with speed and odd man rushes .
Expect some if not all the games to go this wAy .
This is the 2 nd worst possible match up for us Pitt being the other .
No one is beating Pitt in 7 anyway
Actually we didn't lose 3 games to Ottawa play-off style. We lost 1 after a shoot out.
Man, we are better than Ottawa and need to make round 2 without going to game 7. Yes, Spezza and Karlsson are awesome and were playing like Gretzky against us but that was halfway through the season. A lot has changed.
I am not here to ignite dispute, but just to wish you luck (as much as it hurts to). Watch Alfredson, he can quickly turn beast in the playoffs like he did to us abfew seasons ago. Cross your fingers and hope your team holds up, im a fan of a team that was the first round upset many years in a row.
If Neil is in the game we should get Stu or Rupp to try him out to see just how healthy he is . I think he is the key to beating that team...get him out or off the ice as much as possible . They do have a tough hard hitting roster...those wins were not flukes over us . We will have to strike first and check like heck to slow them down and hopefully win the series early and get some rest for rd 2 .
First game against the Sens we dominated them through 50 minutes, had them down 4-1 and then took dumb penalties to let them back into the game. They won in a shootout. We won 7 straight after that.
Second game we beat them 3-2 in a game that wasn't as close as the score indicated.
Third game we dominated them in shots and chances, couldn't buy a goal, Torts benched Richards and others in the 3rd and rolled out Boyle's line every second shift. Ottawa scores a 2nd goal on an odd man rush with a few minutes left while we're pinching for the tie, then adds an empty netter.
Fourth game they beat us with Biron in net, letting up a slap shot from the blue line and two gimme rebounds, while we were in the midst of our worst 3 game stretch of the season.
The "Ottawa owned NYR this season" opinion is so overblown. Yes, they went 3-1 against us but for those who watched the games, it easily could have been 3-1 in our favor.
I'm pleased with the matchup. Questionable goaltending, relatively soft defense, very young team with not a whole lot of playoff experience. Explosive on offense, but all season long we have been excellent defensively. We're not going to get in a pond hockey match with Ottawa. We're going to force them to play our game, which we excel at and have huge advantages in net and on defense.
If your ambition is to win the Stanley Cup, you shouldn't fear the 8th seeded Senators in round 1. There will be much more formidable tests then this before the Cup is awarded. Not to say that this series will be easy by any stretch. If the Rangers can't pass this test they are far from championship material.
No excuses. Here comes the rest the Rangers didn't have for over a month. Heal those ailments, clear your heads, and play with some piss and vinegar against Ottawa.
I dont get how people are more worried about Ottawa than Washington. Spezza, Alfredsson, Michalek are all good players. None of them are Ovechkin.
The Senators are a good team, but they're the weakest of the three lower seeds and might be weaker than Florida. They can still beat us, because that's the nature of the playoffs, but the matchup itself isn't something to worry about.
