Brooms might come out Thursday night if the Boston Bruins come away with a Game 4 win against the New York Rangers. Up 3-0 in the series, Boston is one victory away from a sweep and a trip to the Eastern Conference finals.
Game 4 begins at 7 p.m. ET on CNBC. You can watch it live HERE.
New York is focused on forcing a Game 5 and avoiding a shutout. History says the Rangers won't make it to the conference finals, according to the Associated Press. Only three teams have ever came back from a 0-3 hole to win a playoff series.
"We're not looking at odds or anything like that," Rangers captain Ryan Callahan told AP reporters. "We're looking at one game at home, and we'll try to bring this thing back to Boston. That's the only way we can look at it, to try to win one game in our building."
They'll have to do it without one of the NHL's highest-paid players — center Brad Richards is a healthy scratch for Game 4. Rangers coach John Tortorella made his decision after an overall poor postseason performance from his $60 million man.
"I don't know if surprised is the right word for it," Richards said. "I'm disappointed."
Rangers forward Darroll Powe echoed Tortorella philosophy of one game at a time.
"Obviously, we can't win four games (Thursday) night," Powe said. "We have to focus on just the task at hand."
There's still a glimmer of hope for New York fans. The Bruins famously blew a 3-0 lead to the Philadelphia Flyers in a 2010 playoff loss. Bruins coach Claude Julien, however, isn't reading much into that.
"You learn from the past, but you live in the moment. You don't live in the past," he said to AP reporters. "I like where our team is right now. We're certainly not looking at it the way other people will look at it - trying to find reasons to give New York some hope, saying 'These guys have done this, these guys have had trouble doing this.' We're certainly not even going there."
