The first game of the series convinced us that the Rangers are much better than Montreal.
They're not.
Two evenly matched teams.
Rangers are in a good spot.
A lot of you can never accept a loss at any time. If the Rangers win a game in overtime, the posts are filled with how great they are. A loss in overtime generates endless posts saying they are all pure ****. That's nuts.
So many people forget there is another team on the ice that helps determine the outcome. It's not as simple as Rangers play well, they win. Play bad and they lose.
They are not two evenly matched teams. It is just wrong to even say that. While I agree with your overarching theme and message - that this board has pubescent hormonal mood swings given the outcome of a game, your justification for this post at this time is wrong.
The fact of the matter is that the Rangers are a better team than the Canadiens. The only team I think we were evenly matched up against was the Penguins - the Flyers and the Habs being marginally to significantly worse than our squad.
If I was to break it down, which I don't want to do but I will do anyway as there is near certainty that your or someone else will question my reasoning behind labeling the Rangers as the more dominant team to begin with, it goes like such:
The Rangers have the more talented offense. Talent is hard to appraise as it can be subjective and in the eyes of the beholder, but the Rangers' star power and depth convincingly trumps the talent of the Canadiens.
Their offense is far more balanced, meaning that their ability to score is not only potent due to the talent but evenly distributed, as well. I state this with near certainty and its validity seems almost unarguable.
Their defense is more talented and balanced and works better as a cohesive unit. If we were to cancel out Subban and McDonagh out of our judgement of this statement (as I consider both to be Norris candidates that are nearly equal in net worth to their respective teams), Girardi > Emelin, Staal > Markov, Stralman = Gorges, Klein = Weaver, and Moore/Diaz > Boullion.
The next thing to compare is the goalie situation and before the series started, I had Hank and Price equal as both had the capability of absolutely stifling the opposing team's offense at a nearly equal rate of time and probability. Seeing as we have only seen Price for 2 periods out of 17, and we are playing their 2nd back up (soon to be immediate back up), the advantage would obviously and undoubtedly go to the Rangers in this facet as well.
To dissect some more categories - namely special teams - our penalty kill (for the most part) absolutely dominates their power play, and our power play seems much more dangerous on a much more consistent basis against their penalty killers. So special teams would clearly go as an advantage to the Rangers, as well.
Finally, coaching. Therrien has a career record of 287-224, a winning percentage of 56%. Vigneault, comparatively, has a record of 462-308, a winning percentage of 60%. Vigneault has nearly a 4% higher winning percentage than Therrien having coached nearly twice the amount of games. We can give a marginal advantage to AV, although that is a conservative statement, but an advantage to the Rangers nonetheless.
There is absolutely no facet between both teams that the Rangers don't have an advantage on. They aren't two equally matched teams. Truth be told, we should have been able to finish this series in 4 games, or even 5.
But the Rangers have fallen victim to conforming their playing style to combat that of the Canadiens. They're engaging in behind the scenes play, allowing the Canadien players to get under their skin with their antics (whether that be media showmanship or on-ice embellishment), and they've deviated their method of playing in the last 2 games.
The board's mood swings are an issue that will always be ever-present and a general problem that one post, such as the one quoted, will not fix, alleviate, improve, or have any other positive outcome. It's aggravating and unbearable watching the tides turn on these boards and noticing how (sometimes) every shred of positivity can leave for days. But not for one moment will I agree with you that this team isn't the better team than the one that we are currently playing.
To win this series, it really is as simple as playing their game and playing it well and focused, and they'll win. Discipline, defense, goaltending was what Sam Rosen claimed to be our core values. We have a significant advantage over the Habs in not only just those 3 departments.
If this team loses this series, which I hope they don't and don't think that they will, every ounce of negative posting on this board will likely be justified, as the Rangers will not only have lost to an inferior team, but lost because they couldn't grasp their moment and their destiny. And there is absolutely nothing more disappointing in this world than watching things and people with such high potential throw it away because of a lack of discipline, direction, and focus.
