May 18 New York Rangers vs Carolina Hurricanes Round 2, Game 1

How's it going everyone and welcome back to Rangers Rundown!
I am currently in the middle of a battle with Covid so my throat is absolutely thrashed and I could not make it through an entire video without coughing and hacking so you get to read today!

Same lineup at game 7 (rumors of Sammi Blais at some point in this series? As if he would be would be fresh enough to jump into playoff hockey but...)
Only 2 penalties in this entire game, both of which were in the first 2 minutes of the first period. As you can see by my board, not a lot of note happened in this game. I was honestly a little bored. Although, we just watched the Rangers and the Penguins beat the hell out of each other for 7 games so we're still coming down off of that sensory overload.
The Hurricanes did not seem like themselves until the third period which gave the Rangers (well, really the third line) many chances to rack up the goals but they did not take advantage and that is why they lost this game.
Carolina only had 14 shots through the first 2 periods and maybe one of them was high danger? Even though Carolina had more offensive zone time over two periods, the Rangers were in clearly control of the game but Raanta stood tall.
Lindgren did end up in the locker room for the later part of the first period but he would come back to start the second.
I don't think Kakko slept very well last night because of that open net opportunity. Do the Rangers win if that goes in? Maybe. Is that the reason the Rangers lost? No. They lost because the team could not capitalize on a Carolina slow start. The Rangers had two periods to run the score up and they couldn't do it.
Lindgren did have a beautiful deflection goal tonight. Unfortunately, it was into the wrong net. In overtime. Whoops.
I did not overreact to last night's loss. I still think the Rangers can make this series interesting, but the big boys on this team need to wake up. The momentum from Games 6 and 7 against PIT has not carried over into this series yet. Maybe it does on Friday? If they can come back to MSG with the series tied 1-1, then maybe the conversation changes from CAR in 5, to NYR in 6.
The answer to the trivia question is: Mike Keenan (1994 vs NJ and VAN) and Alain Vigneault (2014 vs PHI and PIT).
Let me know what you all think! Anything I missed that deserves more conversation?
The Rangers play Game 2 in Carolina on Friday with a start time of 8PM.
Hopefully my throat feels better for that video...

Видео May 18 New York Rangers vs Carolina Hurricanes Round 2, Game 1 канала Rangers Rundown