Ranger Lothbrok

Chiming in here with my usual (well-earned) pessimism. There's a reason that if you look at pundit picks for Cup champs this year, it's the same names we've heard since October: Colorado, Dallas, Boston, Carolina, Florida, etc. Not a one has picked us. I know sometimes we relish the whole "underdog" mentality, but I think there's an uncomfortable amount of truth in the whole "Fool's Gold" mentality. Yes, Igor rounding into form is better than any deadline add. And yes, one win and we tie up the President's Trophy. But how many Cup champs in the last decade have won BECAUSE of elite goaltending? If the team is deep enough, you can get away with a warm body in net. Jordan Binnington has a championship ring and zero Vezina votes. Henrik has zero rings and tons of Vezina votes. The offense is anemic at 5 on 5. Panarin has yet to show that he can produce in the playoffs. Zibanejad is, ostensibly, our #1 center. His production is at a near all-time low. He doesn't stack up favorably to the MacKinnons and Ahos of the world. Trouba makes this team worse defensively and gets more and more trust. Lafreniere may be ready to be a difference maker, but Kakko hasn't taken that next step. The precious "core" that we've hung out hats on are all 32-33. They have yet to show that they're gamers. Teams clamp down defensively, and refs let more stuff go. Soft hooking calls aren't going to get you meaningful PP time, and we've shown that we have very little going for us outside Shesterkin and the PP. To put it more bluntly: I believe that every single team that is making the playoffs in the East other than the Capitals or the Red Wings is better built for playoff hockey than we are. I'd love to be proven wrong, but I really have yet to see the "want it" from this roster. Maybe last year's embarrassment is enough motivation, but they were totally gutless when pressured by a hated rival last year. I still think Shesterkin, Fox, Lafreniere, Kakko, Miller, Schneider, etc. are all part of a dangerous roster down the road. But I don't think the current group of veteran "stars" (Panarin, Zibanejad, Kreider) has what it takes to bring us to the promised land. This team SCREAMS first-round-exit-with-a-whimper to me. I doubt they even make it to 7 games in a series. And if you ask why I'm so pessimistic, well, one Cup in 84 years will do that to you. As will a first-round exit last year to a team that isn't even sniffing the playoffs this year despite being largely unchanged. We made Akira Schmid look like a world-beater. He can't even stay in the NHL. He's barely AHL qualify. What does that say about this offense when teams clamp down in the playoffs?

Would be extremely dumb. I go back to the usual rhetoric of "how many Cup winners in the last 20 years have swung big on a first line player and won?" I hate the "you have to go for it every year" justification. It's what forces a team to languish in mediocrity if they don't win a Cup. You don't see good teams adding top line forwards to fill a roster hole. I would sooner let Kakko figure it out than trade a 1st, him, Othmann, or Perreault. Guentzel has put up okay numbers playing with Sidney Crosby. Meanwhile, only two forwards have ever worked with Mika and Kreider: Vatrano and Buch.

I disagree with those saying team speed isn't an obvious deficiency. I could buy into MAYBE them being demoralized vs. NJ, but that God awful play can't possibly be attributed to overthinking. How do you overthink a game plan that doesn't exist? The whole knock on Gallant was the Devils adjusted and we just kept doing what wasn't working. His unwillingness to adapt and his total lack of any cohesive strategy was at least 50% of the problem. But I don't know how you can say team speed isn't an issue when every one of your lines gets beat to every loose puck 5 games straight. Our captain, and ostensibly our #1 defensive d-man, is a glorified, overpaid pylon whose biggest claims to fame are borderline cheap shots and throwing his helmet. Nobody on this roster is winning any footraces except for maybe Kreider.

2023 playoffs: Rangers have circles skated around them by a younger, faster team and have so few ways to respond that they can't beat a third-string goalie. 2023 off-season: Rangers draft players with skating questions and get older and slower in free agency Top marks to Drury here inasmuch as he appears fully willing to commit to what's broken. Never say never, Captain Clutch. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't expecting them to draft a McDavid-level skater and sign an in-his-prime Pavel Bure with barely enough cap space to buy a stick of gum. And getting a player like Wheeler on the league minimum is pretty lucky, and only happened because of the free buyout money he's getting. Stars aligned on that one. But at a certain point, when are you going to bother to see what you have in Lafreniere, Kakko, Robertson, Jones, Cuylle, Othmann, etc.? The kids (who are no longer kids) didn't thrive on the third line, so let's....relegate them back to the third line?

Really the only move they could make. Somebody's head had to roll and he's the sacrificial lamb, but I can't believe that tweet that player exit interviews had something to do with it. You assholes didn't show and you're pointing the finger at the guy that got us back into the playoffs and to ECFs, for that matter, with two of the best regular seasons in team history? Have some damn culpability. I will say though, I know NOTHING of what went on behind the scenes, so it of course could be that they had very legitimate gripes. But from my standpoint, Gallant's biggest mistake was changing nothing and constantly saying he liked our game when the Devils adapted after Game 2. They figured their shit out, and GG just stuck with the plan. No urgency whatsoever. He's obviously not a great in-game tactician. But...this was really the only move. All of the contracts I'd like to see gone are essentially unmovable anyway. We're limited in the "statement" we can make here beyond just window dressing.

With the dust having settled SLIGHTLY (though the pain hasn't abated in the slightest), I have come to believe that this result was both healthy and necessary. Last year we kind of failed upwards. We were getting dominated by Crosby before Trouba took him out. We were kind of a bad matchup for the Canes I guess, but we got as far as we did with shitty 5 on 5 play, decent special teams, and superb goaltending. We caught a rusty Tampa team, but as soon as they warmed up, we basically got swept. Those latter 4 games weren't remotely competitive. Neither was this series after the Devils shook off the jitters. This team is a bit of fool's gold. Regular season heroes with disappearing acts when it matters. And Drury fell for the same shit we used to and got stars in his eyes. Last year we made strategic adds in Copp and Vatrano and made it 2 games away from the SCFs. This year we chased star power that we didn't even really need and paid for it. This is this team's second trip to the post season after a five year drought. Getting to the ECFs last year was kind of miraculous, and again, required Crosby getting knocked out. We couldn't knock out Hughes and the better team won. Two years ago Panarin got his head bashed into the ice and we reacted by firing our GM and President and adding toughness. This year we added two scoring wingers for...what reason, exactly? In 94 we traded a young Tony Amonte for Matteau and look how that panned out. This needed to happen if this core was ever going to win anything. They're just not good. They don't want it bad enough. I hope they're embarrassed, sad, and enraged, and I hope this forces Drury to make some adjustments. Hopefully, this lights a fire the way only an embarrassing first round exit to your biggest rival after dominating the first two games can. We were exposed. NJ deserved it, every bit of it. They hounded us for every single puck and we had NO answer. They skated circles around us and we let them. They adjusted their PK and we did nothing. Flat out, the better team won. For me, it's better that it happened now than when we invariably run into NJ again in the next five years in the semis or conference finals. Learn from it. Be ashamed by it. And be better.

I just got the strangest feeling that this is the moment that gets this team past NJ when it matters even more. Like, let them have their win, which they clearly deserved. But when it's the ECFs and not the quarterfinals, revenge is going to be gloriously sweet.

Thank God I got all existential about it earlier and convinced myself in the grand scheme of life that none of this actually matters.

I don't blame them for chanting Igor. We spent like a decade doing MAARRTTTYYY after every goal he let up. We kinda had it coming.

Yup. Turned it off.

Especially when a week and a half ago we were talking sweep.

I wanna say good season boys, but to not make it out of the first round is not a good ending.

Awful awful awful Adam Fox

Guys I think the bad team showed up.

Yeah I'm about ready to fire Panarin into the sun at this point. Drop passes are turnovers against this team. Stop doing it. Also, since when is Adam Fox allergic to shooting?

Igor keeping us alive.

Let's go boys. If it doesn't break our way, it's been an honor and a privilege.

I HATE these 8PM starts. Half of the time I consider "maybe I'll just go to bed and hopefully wake up to good news" and then end up staying up anyway out of nerves. Speaking of which, objectively this is just entertainment. I have no idea why I'm so nervous for a game I'm not playing in. Like, for me personally, what's at stake here? Some ribbing from Devils fans at work? And yet, you can make yourself sick over this stuff. Like every time I remember there's a game tonight I get a dagger in my gut of sheer nerves and wanna puke. Strange being a sports fan. You have a better than 90% chance of being disappointed every year no matter who you root for, and we all keep coming back for more.

The thing I keep going back to is: all three games we lost, we beat ourselves. It wasn't so much the Devils suddenly "figuring it out." Ruff made good adjustments, Gallant made none until elimination was on the line, and the biggest names on the team kept coming up short. You'd hope they would keep you in it when your team clearly doesn't "have it," but when Vincent Trocheck scores your only goal in a game, that's a problem. Panarin had TWO golden chances in the last 5 minutes of Game 3 to put it away, and we controlled the OT. If last year was any indication, awakened Mika = terror for opponents. Kreider has been Mr. Clutch for years now so we know what he'll bring. If we don't beat ourselves, I don't think they can beat us. It sucks that we have to be asking what team shows up tonight, but that's the life we've been forced to live this series. Play the way we know we can, Igor will take care of the rest.

I hope the good team shows up tomorrow. That'd be sweet.

Dat glove though. Seriously nobody gonna mention that?

I brought out the Rangers shot glass, the Foster's "oil cans" (as my dad and uncle used to call them during the 94 run...sadly they've both passed), and the Gretzky maple whiskey.

Keep pouring it on until they pull this piece of Schmid. I want Lindy guessing as to who to start next game. Sorry, it's the Rangers. *cough* IF there's a next game *cough*

Remember when we added Kane and people thought this was the most talented roster to ever play?

Agree 100%, but he's our darling new player that we brought in to win us a Cup. Surprised he's not on both PP units.