Rangers not thinking about past 2-0 series lead disasters going into Game 3: Different feel
WASHINGTON — So here are the Rangers just over a year later, carrying the same 2-0 series lead into Game 3 of the first round. It’s a different season, a different opponent and different circumstances, but the Blueshirts are face-to-face with the same opportunity they grossly underdelivered on last season en route to a stinging seven-game defeat at the hands of the Devils. To the Rangers, that is for the outside world to make a big deal about. Because inside the locker room, the Rangers aren’t allowing themselves to see any correlations to past disappointments.There’s too distinct a contrast between the then and now to do so. “I think there’s a different feel in the locker room,” Jimmy Vesey said after practice at MSG Training Center on Thursday before the team caught a flight to Washington.
“We know what we have to do, how we have to play [and we’re] a year older and I’d say a little more organized this year. “We’re up 2-0, but it’s still the NHL, it’s going to be a tough series.It’s always hardest to close a team out.”This Rangers core knows that last statement better than most.
They weren’t just in the same spot a year ago, they also blew the 2-0 series lead they took over the Lightning in the Eastern Conference final two years ago. In fact, the Rangers haven’t taken a 3-0 lead in a playoff series since they swept the Atlanta Thrashers in the first round in 2007.The Thrashers are now the Winnipeg Jets, to put that timeline in perspective.And as it pertains to their history with the Capitals, the 2009 first-round matchup saw the Rangers fail to capitalize on 2-0 and 3-1 series leads before Washington won in seven.
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