Wow

Zach titled his last post, "Saw That Coming". This one should be titled, "Should Have Seen That Coming".

On Friday night, my wife and I had the family over for a barbecue. My father-in-law is a Rangers fan, and a cynical one at that. As the Rangers faltered in Game 5, he remarked to me that he thought they were going to end up losing the series. I told him, flat out, there was no way the Rangers were going to lose this series. However, we did agree that the Rangers' entire team is Henrik Lundqvist. I went as far as to joke that Lundqvist should win the Hart Trophy every year.

Now? Turns out he may be right. As I type this, the Rangers just scored a goal to make the game 5-2 in favor of Washington. For the second straight game, Henrik Lundqvist is watching the third period from the bench in a Rangers hat. Lundqvist wasn't very sharp today, nor was he on Friday; it's no surprise that the Rangers lost these two games.

Suddenly, the Rangers are in deep doo-doo. They'll be traveling to a hot crowd in Washington to play Game 7 on the road. The Capitals were 29-9-3 at home this season. Lundqvist is a mess. The usual suspects still aren't showing up. The one saving grace is that the Rangers will get their coach back on Tuesday - but they had John Tortorella behind the bench in Game 5 and still got blown out.

Long story short? The Rangers have their work cut out for them. If they don't advance to the second round - a scenario that's looking very likely - there will be plenty of blame to be passed around. And there's not a single person in the entire organization who should be absolved.