Morphinity 2.0

The only Game 7's would be in the Western Conference in Dallas and Vancouver. Rangers play at 7, Dallas at 8, Vancouver at 10:30. There, I did it for you, NHL.

I can't quibble too much with it. As we know, the Rangers statistical profile isn't that great, and that's what this is all based on. In the end, it doesn't matter that much anyway. 66-34, 60-40, 55-45. It's all in the same ballpark.

Knies is an animal.

I think Rangers fans are underestimating the Canes. They're a great team, well-coached, and relentless. Going to be a battle and the Rangers need to be sharp defensively because the Hurricanes have more of a high-end, in Guentzel and a healthy Svechnikov, than they have in past playoffs.

So is "they played them to a draw at 5v5 and only won with special teams and goaltending". Yeah no shit. That's been the formula for the Rangers going back since Panarin got here. The Capitals series didn't teach us anything new and to expect them to dominate any team at 5v5, no matter who the opponent is, is just expecting something outside of how this team is constructed. Yeah, Igor has to be the star. Yeah, the powerplay is going to have to keep rolling against a much tougher, more aggressive opponent. Tell me something we don't know.

You can also argue they should have done better on the Kadri trade. And they should have - Barrie was a total bust for them. But they were also hamstrung by where he wanted to go. He refused a trade to Calgary after all.

I don't know. The Canes are chuckers, yes, but they're also elite forecheckers and cyclers. And the Rangers are not the best when the other team has established a zone presence - they tend to lose track of other players on the ice. Plus, once you get their D turned around on the forecheck, they get exposed more than other teams. They should do a lot of what they did in 2021 - a lot of flipping the puck out of the defensive zone into the neutral zone to set up a jump ball situation. It's the quickest and easiest way to break out against a team that's so good at sealing off all usual breakout routes.

In a vacuum Tavares was fine. His contract was signed with the assumption the cap was going to increase by $4M or so ever year, which was a healthy assumption. No one foresaw a flat cap for 4 years due to a pandemic shutting down the season. Even Marner and Matthews were signed before all of that, under the same assumption. As Phil said, not trading one of them to give them some breathing room is what has fucked them.

That's outrageous to me. What was he expected to do there?

There's no way he "woke up stiff" and is missing two games. There's something super fishy going on here, and I suspect "stiffness" is a part of it, so to speak.

Wasn't even close last night - obviously from the score, but the Bruins were just better in every way.

I used to. Lived in the DMV for 5 years. Got out of there as soon as I could.