Boucher, Senators expect urgency from Rangers

Ottawa Senators coach Guy Boucher has been playing the underdog card since before the New York Rangers came to town for Game 1 of their Eastern Conference second-round series.

Boucher was just happy the Senators weren't going to get swept after a Game 1 victory and kept the routine going after his club rallied to win Game 2.

Now that Ottawa is up 2-0 in the best-of-seven series with Game 3 at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, is it time for Boucher to acknowledge his team might not be as overmatched as he'd like people to believe?

Nope.

"On my God, we have everything to do," Boucher told the Ottawa Sun. "We won at home, games we have to win at home, and now we're going to play in their barn.

"We enjoy playing there, I think we did well there, but at the same time we know the kind of urgency they're going to bring to the next game. I know they talked about reloading because they've got two days off and figuring out what they have to do beat us and I think we have to do the same. We've got to back to the drawing board and make sure we're not surprised by anything they're going throw at us."

The Rangers squandered a two-goal lead late in Game 2 before losing 6-5 in double overtime. Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored the final two goals of regulation to tie it, then a third in the second overtime to cap a four-goal afternoon.

New York coach Alain Vigneault shortened his bench, basically using nine forwards toward the end of the third period and in both overtimes.

Is it possible the Rangers insert Tanner Glass, who hasn't played since Game 3 of the first round against the Montreal Canadiens?

"Everything's on the table right now," Vigneault told the New York Daily News. "Whatever we feel is best for the group is what we're gonna do."

The other issue for the Rangers is their defense, which won't get much better no matter who is in the lineup. Defenseman Nick Holden's decision to pinch led to the two-on-one chance resulting in Pageau's game-winning goal while Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi were on the ice for Pageau's other goals in the third period.

Despite their effectiveness, Brady Skjei, who had two goals, and Brendan Smith played the fewest minutes among Rangers defensemen in Game 2.

Holden has struggled throughout the playoffs, but there may not be a better option to replace him.

"I thought he had some good moments," Vigneault told the New York Daily News. "Him and Marc (Staal) got caught there on a couple of goals, but Nick has played some pretty good hockey for us. Nobody's gonna be perfect out there; we're gonna make mistakes.

"When the mistakes end up in the back of your net, obviously people are analyzing them a little bit more in depth, and that's one that because it became the winning goal obviously people have a right to analyze. And we're analyzing it also."

The Senators are analyzing how to be better as well. They won Game 1 when captain Erik Karlsson's bad-angle shot bounced off the head of goaltender Henrik Lundqvist and Game 2 was minutes away from being lost until Pageau became a hero.

"We're going into their building and we know that they're going to come (out hard)," Senators defenseman Dion Phaneuf told the Ottawa Sun. "(Saturday) we got lucky in that we were able to find a way, but we can't spot them those leads because when you're chasing a game it's going to eventually catch up to you.

"But we're really happy with finding a way but we know we have to be better."