After home splits in 1st two rounds, Rangers aim for 2 straight

Trust me on this one, folks: Winning Game 2 at home, which the Rangers failed to accomplish against the Senators and Capitals, is THE issue today and tomorrow.

Way back on April 14, the 3-2 OT loss to the Sens on the Chris Neil goal was a wakeup call after the 4-2 opening win. Rangers led 2-1 late in the thrid.

And remember the 3-2 loss to the Caps and young Mr. Holtby in G2 at MSG? Ovechkin scored onthe PP (Richards penalty) to break a 2-2 tie in the third after Rangers had come back from being down 2-0. Crusher.

Forget all the other media bluster, forget the goofing on Tortorella (unjustified yesterday), forget the hoo-hah about being tired (well, except when the Rangers were pinned down and needed that second period timeout), the Lundqvist-Brodeur duel (loved how Brodeur said he only saw Lundqvist about 10 minutes during the game, it's not like they're checking each other).

Here's a Chris Kreider stat for you to chew on with the morning coffee and apple turnover: Only one of four NHL players to have three playoffs goals before skating in a regular season game.

And it's been a story alll season, the captain with the motor, another guy who is playing with some dings: Ryan Callahan: Five hits, three blocks. He may not be able to shoot as much but he leads NHL skaters with 68 hits and No. 1 among forwards with 26 blocked shots.

Who wants to bet that at least one of these games is going to OT?

Rangers skating at the Garden today at 2, stay tuned for reports;  Devs skating in Newark. Newsday's got ya covered.  

Live Chat Alert: We're thinking Thursday at noon.  Note it on your PDAs.