Rangers not interested by previous 2-0 collection lead disasters going into Sport 3: 'Completely different really feel' – New York Put up

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WASHINGTON — So listed here are the Rangers simply over a yr later, carrying the same 2-0 series lead into Sport 3 of the primary spherical. 
It’s a unique season, a unique opponent and completely different circumstances, however the Blueshirts are face-to-face with the identical alternative they grossly underdelivered on final season en path to a stinging seven-game defeat by the hands of the Devils. 
To the Rangers, that’s for the skin world to make a giant deal about. 
As a result of contained in the locker room, the Rangers aren’t permitting themselves to see any correlations to previous disappointments.
There’s too distinct a distinction between the then and now to take action. 
“I believe there’s a unique really feel within the locker room,” Jimmy Vesey mentioned after apply at MSG Coaching Heart on Thursday earlier than the workforce caught a flight to Washington. “We all know what we have now to do, how we have now to play [and we’re] a yr older and I’d say a bit extra organized this yr. 
“We’re up 2-0, however it’s nonetheless the NHL, it’s going to be a tough series. It’s at all times hardest to shut a workforce out.”
This Rangers core is aware of that final assertion higher than most.
They weren’t simply in the identical spot a yr in the past, additionally they blew the 2-0 collection lead they took over the Lightning within the Japanese Convention last two years in the past. 
In reality, the Rangers haven’t taken a 3-0 lead in a playoff collection since they swept the Atlanta Thrashers within the first spherical in 2007.
The Thrashers are actually the Winnipeg Jets, to place that timeline in perspective.
And because it pertains to their historical past with the Capitals, the 2009 first-round matchup noticed the Rangers fail to capitalize on 2-0 and 3-1 collection leads earlier than Washington gained in seven.
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That was the collection when head coach John Tortorella was suspended for Sport 6 after memorably squirting water and throwing the water bottle at a fan within the Washington stands throughout Sport 5. 
Historical past says the 2-0 series lead hasn’t bode nicely for the Rangers, however gamers at the moment donning the group’s crest care not for what historical past has to say. 
“I don’t suppose as a participant you concentrate on [the past],” Mika Zibanejad mentioned. “The opposite two collection that you just talked about [against the Lightning and Devils], we misplaced them. However I’d moderately be up 2-0 than down 3-1 like we had been towards Pittsburgh [in 2022], being down 3-2 towards Carolina that very same yr. I believe it’s a brand new yr, new playoffs and we simply acquired to maintain going.” 
Sport 3 on Friday evening will current a brand new set of challenges, together with an much more determined Washington workforce that shall be trying to take the Rangers out of their recreation any method they’ll. 
The best and easiest method to try this can be to take the bodily route, one that would frustrate the Rangers or bait them into conditions that would go away them weak.
Tom Wilson already began main that cost in Sport 2, however Matt Rempe and the Rangers might want to preserve their heads about them. 
It’s true, the Rangers have by no means had a dynamic like they do now. 
They didn’t have Peter Laviolette as a coach. 
Solely three different Rangers groups gained the Presidents’ Trophy, together with the 1994 Stanley Cup champions. 
If the Rangers are going to take something from the previous, let it’s the feelings they by no means need to really feel once more. 
“In all probability simply going via it and having that feeling after final yr,” Vesey mentioned of what they’ll take away from the Devils collection. “It’s a unique workforce this yr. We’ve acquired new faces, gamers, employees, coaches, so it’s a unique workforce. We have now that have and study from it.”

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