A Game 7 in any sport is special, but a Game 7 in the NHL playoffs is something that crosses the boundary of sport and can become the subject of legend and lore. The New York Rangers and Washington Capitals will deliver us a Game 7 tonight in their Eastern Conference semifinal series.
The Capitals’ MiG jet superstar, Alex Ovechkin, has guaranteed a Game 7 win, which echoes the ballsy Broadway predictions of Joe Namath and Mark Messier. Ovechkin is the most dangerous and dynamic player in the NHL. His shot is a multitude of adjectives that simply cannot convey its power or precision, and tonight’s game is his invitation to enter the rarified space inhabited by hockey legends.
In his tenth season in the NHL, Ovechkin needs this win. The Capitals, as a franchise, need this win, but with need comes desperation. Ovechkin is a desperate hockey player, who is seeking a seat with the legends of the game, which has eluded him throughout his career. As an organization, the Capitals have placed their trust and future into the mercurial talent of this Russian master, but is the master finally mature enough and evolved enough to submit a game for the ages tonight?
As a hardcore Broadway Blueshirts fan, I hope Ovechkin has some bad borscht before tonight’s face-off. I happen to thoroughly enjoy the sheer power and breadth of Ovechkin’s talents, but if there is a year to win the Stanley Cup for the New York Rangers, this is it.
In Round One of the playoffs, the Rangers disposed of Sid “The Kid” Crosby and his Pittsburgh Penguins. There is no other resident superstar, in any sport, that I despise more than the weasel-like and chippy, Sidney Crosby. Crosby is a more talented version of Ken “The Rat” Linseman, who is a personal idol and did more to influence my street hockey game than any current or former NHL player. Former Rangers agent provocateur, Sean Avery, is a close second.
I don’t bear the same animosity to Ovechkin that I do to Crosby. With a body check that approaches the power of a Russian fighter jet, Ovechkin has the perverse ability to lay waste to an opposing player’s season with one hit. He is John Wick lethal. Crosby is a dilettante to the world of the body check, but is more comfortable with an unsuspecting hack to an opponent’s wrist or back of the knee. One is obvious. The other is a slash and grab man.
Putting aside the personal animosity of a loud and proud Sidney Crosby hater, tonight the New York Rangers can win a Game 7, recover from a 3-1 series deficit and give their fans the belief that the Stanley Cup could be carried down the streets of Manhattan.
When the puck drops, I will not be in front of the tv or at Madison Square Garden, where seats are selling for $800 a piece, but I will be at a Little League baseball game coaching up kids and trying to end a three-game losing streak. In a nefarious and cruel Faustian bargain, would I trade a four-game Little League losing streak for the opportunity to watch the Rangers take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Finals? No comment.
This edition of the New York Rangers feels different. The quest for Lord Stanley’s Cup seems more tangible than it did last year, when they succumbed to the Los Angeles Kings in the Stanley Cup Finals. I haven’t possessed a feeling such as this, which I would almost describe as preordained, since the New York Mets won the World Series in 1986.
Dino Ciccarelli Sucks!
Why do I feel that way? Because this a talented and deep squad anchored by the best goaltender in New York Rangers history, and, depending on the day, is arguably the world’s best netminder.
Sheridan’s Top 5 New York Rangers Goalies
1. Henrik Lundqvist
2. Mike Richter
4. John Davidson
5. John Vanbiesbrouck
With the spectacular and reliable King Henrik in goal, the Rangers will need to overcome the shot-blocking mastery of the Capitals goalie, Braden Holtby. Throughout the series, this pair has submitted virtuoso performances that make this fan think he is watching a game of Pong, played on ice, circa 1977.
But the Rangers possess a talisman. A winger who wields powerful playoff mojo, has the ability to raise his game in crucial moments, and is encoded with a Bobby Nystrom genome series; I speak of Boston College’s own Chris Kreider. Kreider is New York’s answer to Alex Ovechkin.
A Jumpin’ Bobby Nystrom
If I were to search for a weakness – a chink in the Rangers’ playoff armor – I would look nowhere else but to Dan Boyle and Keith Yandle. Each of these defensemen is a talent in the offensive zone, each is adept on the Rangers’ impotent power play that should be a commercial break for both teams’ fans, but both Boyle and Yandle are capable of being exposed in the defensive zone. Boyle is no match for Ovechkin, and the Rangers will make every effort to make sure he disappears from the ice when Ovechkin hops over the boards.
Dennis Maruk Sucks!
This is Game 7. This is what being a sports fan is all about.
All day long I’ve been thinking of Pat Hickey, Eddie Johnstone, how much I hate the Philadelphia Flyers, going to Rangers games with my dad when I was a little kid, having our car towed on Rod Gilbert Night, thinking of Super John Mooney watching the game in his boxers, POTVIN BEATS HIS WIFE!, 1994, Patrice Mooney getting score updates as he covers tonight’s Mets – Cubs tilt, how Brian Leetch had a smoking hot girlfriend at Boston College, and knowing the Rangers will win tonight.
The Rangers have to win. Right?
toughdsheridan 
