Despite being 3-0, Stanley Cup Final isn't as one-sided as some say

The New York Rangers are in trouble - big trouble, in fact, in this 2014 Stanley Cup Final.

Down 3-0 after a game they really needed to win at home, a first championship since 1994 is looking improbable. While the Rangers find themselves in a massive hole, the narrative of this series has taken a turn toward the inaccurate following the Kings' 3-0 Game 3 victory.


“I would be shocked if the Rangers could win Game 4,” NBC analyst Keith Jones said in an interview on The Jim Rome Show. “The LA Kings have shown great dominance for many parts of this series against the Rangers."

Many?

For the majority of this series, the Rangers have been ahead or tied with the Kings. In each of the first two games in L.A., the Kings only took the lead once and for all on game-winning goals.

In Game 3, the Rangers squandered opportunities in the first period then the Kings pounced with a final-second goal from Jeff Carter before the intermission.

The Blueshirts had double the shots of the Kings, but not one goal to their name, Monday night. More than the Kings displaying dominance, one player, goalie Jonathan Quick, did.

Quick was simply magnificent shutting the Rangers out in the Garden, sprawling and lunging to form an impenetrable wall in front of his net. The American goalie took his play to a world-class level, unlike the first two games in which he let in eight goals.

Look at it this way. The Rangers have had two-goal leads three times in this series - and blown them all three times. Sure, the Kings are "resilient," as just about every hockey writer and analyst has called them since the Final's first game.

But more than that, they're ruthlessly opportunistic. Kings goals have come at every which angle, deflected off sticks and skates, so elusive that Henrik Lundqvist's had little shot of keeping them out. Game 2's comeback was catapulted by a third-period goal in which Kings forward Dwight King stymied any form of movement for Lundqvist in the crease. Yet the play went on - no stoppage, no penalty, just the sound of the goal horn.


It's been that kind of series for the Rangers - one where the Kings have seized their opportunities to suck the life out of their opponent.

But on the whole, despite what it says on the ledger, the Cup Final has not been some kind of epic domination. Even time after time in Game 3 when the Rangers couldn't convert, they were still peppering Quick with quality chances. Each of the first two games had to be decided in overtime.

To completely rule the Rangers out in Game 4 would be ignoring the Rangers' own resilience (the 3-1 deficient they improbably emerged from against Pittsburgh) and misinterpreting how the Kings have gotten out to a commanding series lead.