This right here, the guy was a total Bruins killer, hopefully never to be seen again in the Western Conference.
The I looked up his career stats vs Boston.
21 games, 9 goals, 3 assists.
So really not that bad.
http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/nhl/players/2416/splits;_ylt=AnfC6IPIKIXabNkx2W3Jm6fCfgM6?year=career
Rick Nash 12 games, 2 goals, 5 assists.
So not a real Bruins killer either.
This, this and this. Just came in here to post this exact same thing. The Rags losing Gaborik severely hurts them against us in my opinion.He may not have the best stat total, but he always was a threat in games against us. Them not having him will severely hurt the Rangers in this series. I get why they got rid of him, because he definitely showed up when he wanted to, but it seemed like always showed up against the Bruins. The other thing that I think may get lost in this whole conversation is that the Rangers have four player from the anemic Columbus Blue Jackets. Four.Brassard,Dorsett, Moore, and Nash. Thats four guys who have come from a loosing culture and three of them played 15 games for the Rags this season. It will take longer for those three to grasp a winning culture and make a significant impact.Sure Brassard may have compiled nine points against the Caps, but lets face it the Capitals are not as committed to defense as the Bruins are. They have improved a lot, but nowheres close to the tight system that the Bruins play. The Rangers averaged 29.3 shots per game against the Capitals. Unfortunately for the Caps, they have Holtby in net. A guy that although his numbers were fairly decent, is nowhere near the caliber of a tender that Rask is. Our D corps might be a bit depleted, but in this series Claude's style will help, due to the commitment of the forwards to play defense. Last series I was all about opening up more against the leafs and taking advantage of their run and gun style and so-so defense. Now the game plan for this series should be to play good defensive hockey and make sure to get pucks on net against King Hank, with a ton of traffic out front of him
The Rangers are a mirror image of us and play a strong defensive game. They are very committed to the d-zone maybe a little more than we are. However, on the front end we have a huge advantage. Outside of Clowe an Richards. And Clowe is doubtful for part of the series at the very least. I like the games of Stepan and Callahan, but I wouldn't take either of them over their counterparts on our team Lucic and Krejci. There defense will have the upper hand this series, with the injuries that have accumulated for us. I probably would still take them over our squad when full healthy, but it would be very close. King Hank is better than Rask, but I think the forwards that we have will put a lot more pressure on him than their forwards will put on Rask. Im taking the Bruins in 6 and it will be because of our superiority up front. Tuukka will hold his own. I won't be surprised if two games go deep in to OT because of the style of play. Expect a sandpaper series with a bunch of grit down low and dirty goals. Should be a good one.
