TAMPA — The Rangers’ fourth line of Tanner Glass, Dominic Moore and James Sheppard had the Garden crowd on its feet late in Sunday night’s first period, helped by J.T. Miller jumping on during a powerful offensive zone shift.
As Game 5 proceeded, however, Tampa Bay’s forwards asserted themselves ahead of the Blueshirts’ bottom two lines, and that won’t cut it for Alain Vigneault’s team against a Lightning squad that is supposed to rely only on its top-end skill.
The Lightning consistently try to dress seven defensemen, so there are only five depth forwards doing the dirty work, but when Tampa wins that battle, it becomes difficult for the Rangers to compete.