by Marc Phillippe Babineau

Created on: April 17, 2008

The New York Rangers, the storied old franchise that has a hit and miss record with making the playoffs in the past decade or two, has its; best chance in a long time to go far into the post season this year. For years, before the salary cap, the Rangers had the highest team salary in the NHL, but the Rangers have lately pared their salaries, and have re-built with some good trades and building from within. The Captain, Jaromir Jagr, is a mere shadow of his former glory days, but is still a force to be reckoned with. Every player on the New Jersey Devils has to be aware of where the penultimate play-maker is on the ice, as his vision and play-making skills are still as sharp as ever, even if his legs are not what they used to be. His scoring touch has dissipated, but Jagr is still a man with the weight of the most storied original-six franchise in NHL history on his shoulders, and he needs more help than is at hand to deliver the Stanley Cup to the Big Apple.

With the likes of Scott Gomez, Brendan Shanahan, Colton Orr and Chris Drury on the offence, the Rangers need to settle down and take some solid, body-crunching type forechecking to the talently depleted New Jersey Devils. Solving Martin Brodeur and his ever impressive post season statistics is the key to advancing past the first round of the 2008 NHL playoffs. But competing against the physical play of the Montreal Canadiens or the fast and stylish play of the Pittsburgh Penguins will be a daunting task for the Rangers.

While the antics and aggressive play of super-pest Sean Avery, the player who seems intent on rewriting at least the penalty books if not the history books, seems to be taking the news hounds off of the other players, but he may want to tone down his histrionics on the ice. If the Rangers can not stay out of the penalty box, with mediocre special teams play, they will not be going very far into these playoffs.

With Henrik Lundqvist, and his .912 save percentage and 2.23 goals against average in the regular season, the defense must shore up the net-minding duties, leave an alley for him to see the point shots, and clear the rebounds that he is more than willing to give up. When the defense, with stalwart players such as Marc Staal, Paul Mara and Marik Malik pinches in on the offense, if the result is not a goal or play stoppage, the odd-man rushes to the Rangers zone could alone cripple the Rangers' chances. Smart play and some lucky bounces seems to be the order of the day for the New York Rangers to proceed deeper into the 2008 NHL playoffs.

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