NEW YORK — The chess match between Alain Vigneault and Jon Cooper began in earnest Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden when each coach submitted his starting lineup before the New York Rangers' Game 1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Final.
Cooper declared first as the visiting team, sending out his dynamic trio of Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov. They have produced at prodigious levels for the Tampa Bay Lightning throughout the postseason despite their classification as a second line, so it was hardly a surprising move.
Then Vigneault got a little tricky.
Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi, the Rangers’ unquestioned top pairing that draws all the tough assignments, were on the ice for the U.S. anthem.
When Cooper went back to the Johnson line for the third shift of the game, McDonagh and Girardi were there again.
Vigneault decided that the biggest problem the Lightning posed was this threesome, not the one anchored by Steven Stamkos, one of the NHL’s deadliest scorers, who had 43 goals in the regular season and seven points in five game ...
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Article written by Dave Lozo
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May 16th, 2015 by Dave Lozo Leave a reply »
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