Bill Clement

The seventh-seeded Rangers opened their first-round playoff series against the second-seeded Capitals very impressively, winning the first two games on the road at the Verizon Center, which is one of the loudest arenas in the NHL, and one of the toughest to play in. Getting two wins in one of the most hostile environments in the NHL is no small feat.

And now, the Rangers are up 3-2 in the series and one win from pulling off the upset. The reason stems from the incredible job John Tortorella has done after replacing Tom Renney as coach of the Rangers on Feb 23. He has unified his players, and gotten them to change the way they play.

The Rangers got a crash course in attack hockey under their new coach. Instead of being a patient, waiting team like they were under the conservative Renney, they are now a team that plays very aggressively, and strives to put pressure on opponents. Tortorella’s own intensity rubs off on his players, from whom he demands a commitment to intensity.

It took a while for the change to take hold, especially since the Rangers were not in good enough shape to play Tortorella’s style, but now they are.

Besides changing the Rangers to an uptempo, pressure team, what Tortorella has also done is make all his players so willing to sacrifice their bodies to keep the puck out of their net. In the first two games of the series, the Rangers blocked 50 shots by the Capitals. This served as a major disruption to the Washington offense.

To finish the job of ousting the Capitals, the Rangers need more puck possession, and some more offense. They need to follow the blueprint that has them playing with an edge but under control, with precision, and dominating when it comes to staying in control of the puck. Their dam will burst at some point if the Capitals are serving up the puck to each other much more than the Rangers are to each other.

The blue-line tandem of Michael Rozsival and Wade Redden, who had struggled for much of the season, was put together by Tortorella for the Washington series. Their mission is to be New York’s go-to, shutdown guys against Ovechkin. Through the first three games, they had done a magnificent job, taking about 80 percent of the ice time against the Russian superstar, and keeping him without a goal.

The longer the Rangers can keep Ovechkin from scoring, the more he starts to press, and the more he tries to do too much. He stops realizing that scoring goals requires relying on your teammates on the ice to make sure the job gets done. The tougher it gets for Ovechkin to score, the more he loses sight of the fact he needs to combine efforts with his teammates to generate goals.

The Rangers’ strategy is that everytime Ovechkin gets the puck, they set up in layers to defend against him. So for Ovechkin, it’s never just one-on-one, it’s never that he beats one guy and he’s in on goal. It’s a cluster-like defense that forces Ovechkin to try and get through multiple players to get a shot off.

It’s a lot easier to get into a scoring position without the puck than it is with it, so Ovechkin would be wise to get the puck to Nicklas Backstrom, who is a fantastic setup guy. Someone will be open with the amount of attention Ovechkin is drawing. Backstrom’s job will be to find him, and see if the Capitals can’t cash in. So rather than try to get it all done individually, Ovechkin has to have more of a give-and go mentality.

Goalie is the single most important position in all of professional team sports.

Without excellent goaltending, it is virtually impossible to win a playoff series. But with excellent goaltending, an inferior team can steal a series from a superior opponent.

Enter the Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist. They call him King Henrik and the title fits.

MORE FROM NHL

NHL Section Front

Coach thinks Ovechkin might play this weekend Kovalchuk could return to ice against Rangers Red Wings claim F Drew Miller off waivers NHL GMs keep trapezoid, will discuss headshots Sabres F Mair clears waivers, to stay in Buffalo Breaking down the perfect NHL player Live odds Matchups/Injuries Vote: Who will win the Stanley Cup? Rotoworld: Latest NHL player news, rumors, more NHL Section Front   Add NHL headlines to your news reader: