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Hoffman’s Keys to Game 2

by Patrick Hoffman on April 18th, 2009 at 9:00 am

While the New York Rangers escaped Game 1 with a 4-3 victory, the team still has a few things that they can improve upon in Game 2 this afternoon to help grab a 2-0 series lead:

- Winning face-offs. Face-offs are a huge factor in the playoffs. They help establish puck possession and they can lead to goals. In Game 1, the Blueshirts lost more than half of their face-offs. Hopefully this will get better if captain Chris Drury returns to the lineup.

- Keeping an eye on Alex Ovechkin. You cannot allow Ovechkin to rattle off 13 shots in one game. He is the most dangerous player in the NHL and as such, the team needs to do a better job of limiting the amount of room that he has in the offensive zone.

- Throw more pucks at the net. As they saw on Wednesday night, Caps’ netminder Jose Theodore was extremely shaky. The team should not be hesitant to throw as many pucks at the net as they can because if they can do that, they should definitely be able to score some more goals.

Hopefully, the team will improve in the areas mentioned above and if they can do so, a 2-0 series lead is not out of the question.