Thoughts from Game 4 and why the sky isn't falling

I just want to go over a few things from Game 4 since I was extremely busy this weekend and never had the chance to write a review for the game. First, I thought that the Caps played their all around best game of the series on Saturday. The Caps consistently beat the Rangers to pucks, bullied the Rangers along the boards, had a ton of puck possession especially in the first period which set the tone for the game, blocked  nearly 30 Ranger shots and lastly made less mistakes than the Rangers did that allowed them to send the series back to New York for Game 5. 

Lets be honest, the first two goals against the Rangers were on Kreider. No explanation needed for Ovechkin's blast that made it 1-0, but Kreider was responsible for picking up Backstrom, who passed the puck around the net, not before what was basically a stiff arm to a charging Anisimov, which planted Artie firmly on his rear. Backstrom made a simple move from the corner to the low slot where he was wide open to shoot the puck past Hank which he did. To be noted as well that Kreider did not have his stick in the passing lane either to break up the centering feed.

It was a shame after the game to see so much Kreider hate on twitter and various message boards. He's a big reason why the Rangers advanced past Ottawa to begin with so lets not kill the kid. Plus I think Kreider is entitled to a little learning curve. If you want to bash the kid, do it next season after he's had a offseason with the team plus training camp. If he still is making the same defensive mistakes, then he is open to criticism. Kreider is going to be a fantastic hockey player for this team for the next several years, so lets quell the 'trade him and half of the Rangers to Columbus for Rick Nash' chatter.

Moving forward, I hope the fans aren't naive enough to think that the series is now over because they looked terrible in Game 4. The Rangers have always responded well to bad games this season and I would be surprised if tonight was any different. The Rangers know that they have to win tonights' game to avoid what they went through against Ottawa. They also have to start to learn to be a little more selfish with the puck. The Rangers made far too many passes in transition that allowed the Caps to get set up defensively and led to their heavily inflated shot blocking totals in Game 4. I expect the Rangers to come out flying at the start tonight in front of their home fans and come away with a win.