The New York Rangers will play the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night in Game 2 of their NHL Stanley Cup 2015 Playoffs series.
This Eastern Conference Final match up promised to be a dramatic affair, and Game 1 proved to be so with the Rangers claiming first blood to go 1-0 up in the series. They will be hoping to use home ice advantage tonight to extend their lead to 2-0 and move a step closer to another appearance at the Stanley Cup Final.
Today's big game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the New York Rangers has a scheduled start time of 8 p.m. ET and takes place from Madison Square Garden in New York. The game can watched on TV on the NBC Sports network, or online through live stream via the link provided below.
The Lightning will be hoping to level the series tonight at 1-1 before things move back to Tampa Bay later this week.
Tampa Bay will be disappointed to be 0-1 down in the series after losing Game 1 by a score of 1-2, with the game winning goal scored with just over two minutes remaining in the third period.
If they are to get a different result tonight, the Lightning will need to cut out turnovers, as that was a major reason for their loss in Game 1. Turnovers allowed the Rangers to keep building more and more pressure, and along with that pressure came many shots on the Tampa Bay goal. In the end the Rangers outshot the Lightning 30-24 and edged the total shot attempts 61-50.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper said after the game: "The Rangers played extremely well, but we just kept stubbing our toe. We were just handing them tickets to the movie, wheeling the turnstile and watching them go by. We can't be giving pucks away. We can't be turning them over. We can't not make them go the 200 feet. We've been a puck possession team all year. I'm not sitting here and saying that just replicates and goes into the playoffs, but we've got to be much better than we were. I'm quite convinced we will."
The Rangers will know they will have to put in another big show today. So far in this year's postseason they have been unable to go 2-0 up in any series, but if they can finally accomplish that feat tonight it would give them some breathing room as they go on the road.
Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh has said ahead of today's game: "We've got to trust our structure. When we have close support, even if we get hemmed in our zone or they get an opportunity to put a lick on our guy before we get eyes up or make a breakout pass, if there is a little loose puck there hopefully our close support will be able to jump on that before their guy can get it. We have to trust everybody out there, trust our structure."
Today's big game between the New York Rangers and the Tampa Bay Lightning will start at 8 p.m. ET and can be watched on TV on the NBC Sports network, or online through live stream by clicking here.
