RichieNextel305

All 1st Round games will be on MSG except for Game 1, which will be on ESPN. So we’ll have Sam and Joe for a few more games at least.

Not good for Carolina. Fast is always so good in the playoffs. Adds so much especially at this time of year. Been like this since his Ranger days.

FULL SCHEDULE FOR ROUND 1: Game 1: Sunday 4/21 @ 3pm Game 2: Tuesday 4/23 @ 7pm Game 3: Friday 4/26 @ 7pm Game 4: Sunday 4/28 @ 8pm Game 5: Wednesday 5/1 @ TBD ** Game 6: Friday 5/3 @ TBD ** Game 7: Sunday 5/5 @ TBD **

Schedule finally out:

Kings tie it with 1:20 left. If this holds into OT, Kings-Oilers and VGK-Dallas are the last 2 series to be set. Annnnnd it does. All puzzle pieces from the regular season are now put into place for the playoffs. So can we get the schedule?

Kings were just up 3-1 on Chicago starting the 3rd. Have given up 3 goals in less than 7 minutes. If they gain a point, they face Edmonton. If they lose in regulation, they face Dallas. And then, about 25 minutes before puck drop of the playoffs, the fans will finally be able to see the full 1st Round Schedule. Maybe. Probably. I think. Maybe.

I think it’s absurd that it’s Thursday, some series start in 2 days and we still don’t have schedules out. I get that you need to wait for the West to sort itself out for I think 2 series. But the NHL really fucked up here with this. You have some teams getting like 2 or 3 days off, and others have basically an entire week. And the fans and teams and players all need to wait until the playoffs are less than 48 hours away from beginning. Just brutal.

I think had Sakic happened, Bure would have happened when he was leaving Vancouver. He wanted to come here. Smith was hesitant about dealing young talent. He held back Malholtra in those negotiations. Granted, he wouldn’t have even had him to negotiate here. But other young talent was there and could have been dangled, and I think Smith would have been more aggressive there if you had a young Sakic in-house because the Rangers would have been more of a win-now threat.

No Chytil in the rushes yet.

Sometimes that doesn’t even matter. I remember similar thoughts back in 2015 with Nash. He was worse in the playoffs than Bread but in 2014 he was brutal in the playoffs. He came in 2015 and had a monster year. And we wanted it to carry into the playoffs. He got a goal early against the Pens and we all were happy he got the monkey off his back. Ended up not being much of a help regardless. Bread just needs to play his game, regardless of whether or not he pots one early.

Listening to Checketts reasoning made a lot of sense. At the time, Gretzky was coming off a year where he was 3rd in the NHL in scoring, Leetch won a Norris, Richter was coming off a playoff in which he was maybe better than he even was in 1994 and we made this run, don’t forget, with Kovalev missing the entire run with a major knee injury. So we also had the prospect of him coming back, plus also Graves coming off a 30+ goal season. If Sakic ended up in the fold, they would have lost 5 1sts but it may have been worth it. The pivot was LaFontaine, who played well but was gone after less than half a season. If Sakic were there, the stench of Messier wouldn’t have been there really. And they likely end up with Pavel Bure a year later as a real all-in move, as by then I don’t think Smith would have been prospect hugging the way he did with Vancouver when he was available. Just a wild change of events. It was entertaining to see Checketts involvement with the Colorado backstory and how he and Charlie Lyons were able to put it all behind them after all those years.