Rangers In Unfamiliar Territory Four Wins Away From Their Ultimate Goal

Let me welcome you all to the New York Rangers bandwagon....a bandwagon I could have never fathomed of existing. For the newcomers, know one key piece of information: this whole "winning" thing is not what this organization and fanbase is used to.

Since defeating the Montreal Canadiens in six games to advance to the Stanley Cup Final, the constant reminder the media has given us is this is the Rangers' first trip to the Final in 20 years. Yes, we all want to live in the positive that the Rangers are here, but what they fail to remind us of is that this Original Six franchise has won a grand total of one Stanley Cup in the last 74 years. Seventy. Four. Years.

To say the Blueshirts need to take advantage of this opportunity is the understatement of the century. In fact, in the last 10 seasons, the Eastern Conference has been represented by seven different teams. Just getting this far in the playoffs has an immense level of difficulty.

Defeating the Los Angeles Kings in a best-of-seven series will certainly be no easy task. The 2012 Stanley Cup Champions have a very deep, star-studded and battle-tested roster with a Conn Smythe winner between the pipes in Jonathan Quick. They've played the maximum 21 games in the first three rounds of the playoffs this year, winning and eye-popping three Game 7s on the road, a feat never accomplished in the history of this great league. They have the chance to shock the hockey world and no one is giving them a chance to beat the Kings in a race to four wins.

The Rangers certainly have the team to get this done. In fact, they are the absolute definition of "team" as compared to recently assembled Rangers squads. Head coach Alain Vigneault has used all four of his lines and each of them have contributed, something we have not seen in recent years under former coach John Tortorella. They all came together during the tragic time of the passing of Martin St. Louis' mother and rallied from a 3-1 deficit against the rival Pittsburgh Penguins, something never accomplished in the franchise's history.

They play for one another and are playing at the peak of their game.

The Rangers get contributions from every player that dresses as opposed to their 2012 run, under Tortorella, in which they lost to the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference Final. During that run, it was mainly Henrik Lundqvist driving the ship while getting a timely goal here or there from Brad Richards or Marian Gaborik. Oddly enough, the Blueshirts face their former leading goal scorer in Gaborik as he leads the NHL in goals scored this postseason with the Kings (I still don't know what to do with my Rangers' Gaborik jersey).

Their best line all year has been their second line of Mats Zuccarello, Derick Brassard and Benoit Pouliot. Aside from Pouliot taking a number of really bad penalties this postseason, they've been the most consistent and it'll be interesting to see how they mach up against the Kings' big bodies.

During NHL Network's Media Day coverage Tuesday, analyst Barry Melrose noted the team really came together with the acquisition of St. Louis at the trade deadline when they shipped captain Ryan Callahan to Tampa Bay along with two draft picks. St. Louis didn't get off to a flying start with his new club, but man has patience paid off. St. Louis has emerged as a major leader in the clubhouse in his brief period on Broadway and it's hard to say the Rangers would be here without him.

The Rangers are fortunately a healthy squad heading into the Final and they'll get defenseman John Moore back from suspension in Game 2 and Dan Carcillo back from suspension (if they need him) for Game 4.

The experts seem to think this series is mainly one-sided and believe the Kings will cruise to victory. THN's Ken Campbell thought the Penguins would breeze through the Rangers and also said the Rangers wouldn't get by Montreal after that. He says the Rangers' only hope is if the Kings are out of gas.

Look, I understand the Kings are a really, really good team, but so are the Rangers. They've come together better in the last three rounds than I've seen a Ranger team come together in, let's say, 20 years.

The Rangers have just as good of a shot to win the best trophy in sports as Los Angeles does. There's no reason we can't see a parade with Lord Stanley being the guest of honor down Broadway in a couple of weeks. Rangers in 6.