The Rangers are riding on the awesome goaltending of Henrik Lundqvist into the second round. Lundqvist showed he’s still royalty in front of the net when he tamed the Canadiens’ offense, going 4-2 with a 1.70 GAA and a .947 SV% in the six games it took for New York to eliminate Montreal.
Lundqvist has traditionally played well against Ottawa in his career. In fact, he’s allowed two goals or fewer in five of his last six starts versus the Senators.
Of course, The King has to get some goal support behind him. Speaking of that, the Rangers have to do better on the power play. They went just 1-for-15 on the man advantage in the first round and finished the Montreal series with a 6.7 PP%–the worst among all teams in the first round.
The last time New York met the Senators in the playoffs, the Rangers won a first round series back in 2012, 4-3.
Like the Rangers, Ottawa survived the first round by vanquishing Boston in six games. Hopefully for the team, they’ll get out alive of another round with star defenseman Erik Karlsson being bugged by an injury.
Karlsson has revealed that he played the entire first round with two left heel hairline fractures. Despite the injury, Karlsonn was still able to post six points (six assists), suggesting he still could be effective moving forward. Karlsonn will play a critical role in trying to slow down the Rangers’ forwards that features 20-goal scorers like Chris Kreider, Rich Nash, and J.T. Miller.
Ottawa is expecting big that both Bobby Ryan and Derick Brassard would carry their good showing in the first round into the Rangers series. Ryan scored four goals already this postseason to go with three assists, while Brassard has two goals and six helpers so far.
Topbet has the Senators as the underdog in this series with odds of +120 to eliminate New York.
