Watch Rangers-Kings Game 5 streaming online live at 8 pm Eastern Time — 5 pm for those of you watching from the Pacific Time Zone — by following the link provided at the bottom of this article.
Here we are, Game 5. The Rangers finally decided to show up in Game 4 and make things interesting.
Is that unfair? Probably. Truth be told, the NY Rangers made things plenty interesting in Games 1 and 2 of the Rangers-Kings series, taking both into overtime, where a lucky bounce can end your day and your Stanley Cup dreams really fast. Henrik Lundqvist is probably right. You need some lucky breaks to go your way in the Stanley Cup Finals if you’re going to win the close games.
That said, Lundqvist didn’t depend entirely on luck in Game 4 of the Kings-Rangers series. If you watched it, you know the phrase “the goalie stood on his head” was custom made for performances like King Henrik’s 40-save effort . Lunqvist proved that Jonathan Quick isn’t the only net minder in this series who can pick a team up on his shoulders and carry them. While he did get a lucky break in the form of some loose slush that helped prevent a late King’s shot that got past him from crossing the goal line (and from a non-call when his teammate covered the puck), that victory had Lundqvist written all over it.
The NY Rangers need to see a lot more of that if they’re going to have any chance of winning the Stanley Cup this year. If they do, they’ll put themselves in extremely rare company. As previously reported by The Inquisitr , only five teams (one of them their opponent, this year’s Los Angeles Kings) have ever come back from a 0-3 deficit in the NHL Playoffs) and only one has ever done so in the Stanley Cup Finals – the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, who defeated the Detroit Red Wings.
But wait, there’s more. If the New York Rangers can pull it off and win the Kings-Rangers series and the Stanley Cup, they’ll put themselves in a category all by themselves as the first team to ever come back from 0-3 in an NHL Stanley Cup Finals without home ice advantage. The ’42 Leafs had home ice in the finals against the Wings. The Rangers don’t have that luxury against the Kings.
A lot of that will depend on whether King Henrik can continue his royal performance.
Don’t miss any of the action in tonight’s game. You can watch the Rangers-Kings Game 5 streaming online live here .