For Rangers, a Tight, Hard-Hitting Series Is Nothing New GREENBURGH, N.Y. - For the second straight playoff series, the Rangers are facing an opponent playing just like them. The Washington Capitals, like the Ottawa Senators before them, check hard, block shots and play a suffocating defense - just as the Rangers did throughout their 109-point regular season. The top-seeded Rangers do not seem surprised to be tied in their Eastern Conference semifinal series against the seventh-seeded Capitals at two games each. They do not seem surprised this series has featured alternating wins in the first four games - the way their series unfolded against eighth-seeded Ottawa. "We didn't expect anything different," Coach John Tortorella said Sunday afternoon, after the Rangers had a team meeting and optional practice. This is how playoffs are. It changes on a play. Momentum swings, good goaltending. He added: "It's been a really good series and now we go to the last three, starting with tomorrow, one in our building. We're just going to play. So will the Capitals, who were reinvented as a hard-hitting, dump-and-chase unit by Coach Dale Hunter in time for the playoffs. Washington was at its grinding best in a 3-2 win Saturday in Game 4. Just as the Senators" Zenon Konopka was a difficult opponent in the face-off circle in the first round, Matt Hendricks has started to dominate draws for the Capitals. Hendricks was 9-0 against the Rangers on Saturday. More troubling, the Capitals blocked 26 shots; the Rangers 7. During the regular season, the Rangers" opponents would talk after pregame workouts about the need to overcome the Rangers" diligent defense and shot-blocking. On Sunday, the Rangers were saying similar things about Washington. "It's hard to play against a team like that," the Rangers" captain, Ryan Callahan, said. They're really good in the defensive zone. They're similar to us in style, the way we block shots and collapse. You have to realize when to shoot it and when not to. If there is a guy in the lane, maybe you've got to take a look and shoot it to the side of the net. We have to throw it to the net and get bodies there. That's the only way we're going to have success. Marian Gaborik, who scored the winning goal in triple overtime in Game 3 and had another goal in Game 4, said the Rangers had to shoot often and with a purpose. "Before you get the puck, you have to think shot," Gaborik said. But when there is a guy in front of you, you have to shoot around him, not shoot in his pads. We want quick, bad-angle shots, shots from the goal line - and then we can have guys driving at the net. The Rangers should have more drive to their game with Chris Kreider likely to receive regular shifts again. Kreider, the rookie recently out of Boston College, played 7 minutes 34 seconds Saturday after he was on the ice for two of Washington's goals. The first, by Alexander Ovechkin, came off a giveaway by Kreider. "For all our kids, there's going to be bumps in the road," Tortorella said. His are more magnified because it's right in the middle of the playoffs. There were some struggles away from the puck with him. But I have full confidence he's going to be able to handle it and learn from a couple of mistakes. Tortorella said he was expecting more offense from the Rangers, who have scored more than two goals in only 2 of their past 10 games. "We had the puck a lot, but as far as getting good, quality scoring chances, I don't think we developed enough," Tortorella said of Saturday's game. Against Ottawa, the Rangers won the first and third games and lost the second and fourth. They came home for Game 5 at Madison Square Garden, and the Senators won. The Rangers face the identical situation Monday night against Washington. "That series, there was more hatred towards each other with some of the hits that were happening," Callahan said of the seven-game battle with Ottawa. This series has its own character, with the way the teams are defending and how hard it is to create chances and how close the games have been. Callahan was asked if the Rangers needed to play differently in this Game 5. "Not really," he said. We know how we have to play. The only difference is, we have to win this one.