With the Devils now behind them, the Rangers will await the results of today’s games to see if their next round opponent is decided. The Montreal Canadiens and Philadelphia Flyers both have chances to clinch their respective series today.
The Flyers are up first (1:00pm – NBC) though they will have to do so on the road in Game 5 of the series. The Capitals won game one in a third period comeback, but have dropped three straight, including a double overtime heartbreaker to Philadelphia in Game 4.
The Canadiens appeared to have their series in hand too before a third period collapse in Game 4 gave the Bruins a 5-1 win. Boston has outscored Montreal 7-2 in the last three games of the series, winning two of those, losing the other 1-0. Montreal and Boston could close out their series tonight (7:00pm).
Unlike other pro sports, the NHL uses regular season seeding to determine the matchups for the second round (top remaining seed, plays the lowest remaining seed, and the two middle seeds square off), therefore the following scenarios are possible:
For the Rangers (5), the following scenarios are possible:
Scenario 1 – Rangers(5) play Penguins(2)
Canadiens(1) win series
Flyers(6) win series
Scenario 2 – Rangers(5) play Flyers(6)
Bruins(8) win series
Flyers(6) win series
Scenario 3 – Rangers(5) play Canadiens(1)
Canadiens(1) win series
Capitals(3) win series
Scenario 4 – Rangers(5) play Capitals(3)
Bruins(8) win series
Capitals(3) win series
It seems likely that by 10:00pm tonight, that at least one matchup, if not both will be decided.
CAR
NYI
PHI
PIT
CBJ