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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Suddenly, Rangers In Running

From Wire Reports

A sports tournament, especially one as big and long as the two-month, 16-team Stanley Cup playoffs, writes its own script, one that confounds the prognosticators.

What was vague in the first month seems obvious in the second as the plot lines evolve and the characters develop.

The New York Rangers, who seemed so old, so undisciplined and so mediocre for so much of the season, will be fully rested and rejuvenated when they open the Eastern Conference finals Friday in Philadelphia.

Since ending their 82-game schedule April 11, they will have played only 10 postseason games in five weeks before the Game 1 faceoff in the Core States Center.

For the second consecutive round, they will play road games that require only short trips by bus instead of long ones by airplane.

By “staying on the defensive side of the puck,” according to Mark Messier, their captain, the Rangers gave up only five goals in upsetting the favored New Jersey Devils in five games in the second round.

Detroit, Colorado reunited

The Western final, Detroit vs. Colorado, is a rematch of last season’s bitter third round, won by the Avalanche in six games en route to the championship.

The Red Wings are healthier than last spring, more rested and better balanced despite having had less success in the regular season. They haven’t won the Cup since 1955, the longest current drought.

The Avalanche, having ousted Chicago in six games and Edmonton in five, are without Uwe Krupp, Keith Jones and Stephane Yelle, while the availability of Peter Forsberg is uncertain. Krupp needs back surgery, Yelle and Jones have knee injuries and Forsberg missed the last two games of the Edmonton series with a concussion, his second in recent weeks.

Poile on outside in D.C.

The Washington Capitals won’t renew the contract of general manager David Poile, ending the third-longest reign in the National Hockey League.

Poile, the Capitals general manager since August 1982, ranked behind Harry Sinden of the Boston Bruins and Glen Sather of the Edmonton Oilers in years of service to one team.