New York Rangers Flip Intensity Switch in Game 6 to Recapture Series Momentum

Whomever came to Amalie Arena Tuesday night ready to bury the 2014-15 New York Rangers either has a shovel to return to their local hardware store or a ticket to buy to Madison Square Garden for Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final Friday night. 

The Rangers are going back home with a chance to advance to the Stanley Cup Final for the second year in a row after their 7-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie.

The Rangers were booed off the MSG ice Monday night after being shut out 2-0 by the Lightning in the rubber Game 5 of this series. They appeared disinterested in any of the physical aspects of hockey in the loss, or in anything else that might help them win. Down three games to two, with the Lightning at home and ready for a close-out party at Amalie, the Rangers did what they typically do: They shocked everyone by going into Tampa and handily beating the hosts in blue.

They figure to get quite an ovation before the puck drops Friday.

This team flicks the on-off switch more than a toddler with his first electronic gadget. They're great one night, horrible the next. Reverse the order, mix and stir, rinse and repeat. In the playoffs, the Rangers are always the guy on the movie screen with fingers grasping the ledge, either a quick drop away from death or a helping hand from salvation.

Derick Brassard's three goals were more than plenty to help the Rangers get back to a Game 7. The Lightning had a chance to get back to a Cup Final for the first time in 11 years, but goalie Ben Bishop was terrible in the first period and never gave his team a chance. Tampa Bay out-shot the Rangers 16-7 in the first, but the score was 2-1 New York, on goals by Brassard and Keith Yandle.

The game remained up for grabs entering the third, with still that score of 2-1. But three quick goals, by J.T. Miller, James Sheppard and Brassard, and the party was on by the 7:14 mark. Now, it's up to you, New York, to do it again in Game 7. What's not to like about its chances?

Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist has won his last six Game 7s, with a combined save percentage of—get this—.966. Despite the schizophrenic nature of his teams in recent playoff years, the one thing you can count on is a win by King Henrik in a seventh game.

Why do the Rangers get it done so often in Game 7s? As Rangers forward Carl Hagelin told Bleacher Report's own Dave Lozo, before another seven-game series win against Washington: "So many guys have been through it before. Guys aren’t too tense. Guys aren’t too serious. I think guys are ready to play the game when the puck drops. That’s when we get intense.”

What happened to the Lightning team that went into MSG and soundly beat the Rangers in Game 5? In retrospect, Tampa head coach Jon Cooper never seemed overly confident talking about this game. 

"If we don't play better than we did in Game 5, we won't win tonight," Cooper told reporters from the podium Wednesday morning. 

This after a game the Lightning won fairly easily (2-0), or so I thought. When Cooper said this, it seemed a little off. Perhaps he could have said, "We have to play at least as well as we did in Game 5, but I hope we'll be even better."

A little more credit for the job his team did in Game 5, maybe, instead of such a dour expression. That probably had zero to do with the final outcome Tuesday, but who knows? Players listen to their coaches.

Cooper tried to portray confidence about Game 7, though, telling reporters from the podium: "How do I think we're going to respond? We're going to respond the same way we have every time our backs are against the wall. You've watched it happen all year. You know how they'll come out."

Players almost certainly don't listen to what newspaper writers say about them anymore, but let's pretend for a second that they do. The Rangers, it seems, took to heart the words of longtime New York Post columnist Larry Brooks:

If the Rangers lose this game, if they are eliminated in the conference finals, their season can only be evaluated as a failure. Not a failure of character or will, not at all. But a failure nevertheless. Harsh but true, given the standard they have set for themselves.

No grading on a curve here. If they win—if they stave off extinction as they did three times against the Capitals in Round 2, as they have done in 14 of their 17 win-or-else games since 2012 and in five of eight on the road—then the Blueshirts get to define themselves again Friday in Game 7 at the Garden.

Rangers coach Alain Vigneault, who can can advance to his third Cup Final as a coach since 2011 with a win Friday, had this to say about his team after Game 6, to a group of assembled reporters:

I expected our group to get ready, prepare themselves and give ourselves a chance to win this game, and I think that's what our group did. We came out, we capitalized early on our chances. And after that, our goaltender was asked to make some big saves, which he did. But in the third period, with our season on the line, we probably played our best period of this series so far. So we wanted a chance, and we got a chance.

Cooper referenced a flu bug that is going around his team as a possible explanation for Game 6, per Sportsnet's Chris Johnston:

The #TBLightning are dealing with a flu bug. Says Jon Cooper: "This extra day of rest is going to be good for us."

— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) May 27, 2015

Fair enough, but Cooper shouldn't have tried to make any excuses for his team's showing. In a world all about perception, Cooper should have just come out and said, "We stunk; we need to be better" and left it at that. Nobody wants to hear about injuries or flu bugs this time of year in hockey. Everybody is playing hurt.

The Rangers need to win just one more game, on home ice, to play for the Cup. Everything is roughly right where they want it. If things go according to recent history, they will do just that. 

One thing we know for sure about Game 7: For one team, it will be time to party on. For another, it will be time to turn out the lights.