Ranger Lothbrok

Let's GOOOO boys

So I've posted on here before about one our family's silliest of hocus-pocus good luck charms. During the run in 1994, I got a bunny doll for Easter. I thought the name Zubov was funny, so he was named Zubov. He became a rally symbol, and you shook him at the screen so his ears flopped whenever the Rangers scored or needed luck. He's been shaken so many times over the decades that you can see his stitches. He lives in the Rangers stein when he's not in action. I refused to break him out against Pittsburgh or Carolina. The question is: are the ECFs high enough stakes for Zubov to come out of retirement???!! Obviously, Zubov the Bunny has seen better days. What say you? Does he come out now? If you analogize this to the ECFs against NJ in 1994, then the answer is hell yes. But if we have any shot at a Cup, I might need to save the magic for when we NEED it.

I want to believe we can do this, but a lifetime of disappointment will jade anybody. The stat that really matters here is one Cup in 81 years. That said, I will note the following: (1) I feel like this team has more heart to it than ANY of the Lundqvist era rosters. Remember when our team toughness was Tanner Glass? Tampa tried to send a message at the end of the game and Reaves....well....Reaves just laughed. I laughed with him. (2) I keep seeing pundits saying in literally EVERY series we've played so far that our bottom six is sorely outmatched. By Pittsburgh. By Carolina. By Tampa. Tell me: what is so bad about the Kid Line and Motte/Goodrow/Reaves? (3) Speaking of the Kid Line, it's nice to see that it wasn't just the forwards. That play doesn't happen if 24 year old Fox doesn't do a basketball jump to keep it in Leetch-style, and what a seamless pass from K'Andre. (4) We might be "ahead of schedule," and maybe we drop Game 2 in truly embarrassing fashion. All of the experts are saying the Lightning are 18-0 after a loss and we will likely lose the next 4 straight. But we're finding ways up and down the lineup. Let's not forget that Motte opened the scoring against Carolina. That Strome whiffed on a golden opportunity, and then buried with a laser seconds later. That Vatrano knocked a puck OUT OF MID-AIR on a two on one and then scored. Kreider chased Jagr's single season goal record, and Zibanejad is putting on a clinic ever since Games 5-7 against Pittsburgh. He's putting to rest any doubts of whether he can hang in that Top 10 tier. He's not MacKinnon, McDavid, or even Draisaitl. But he is SOUNDLY within that next tier at this point. Stop him and Kreider? Sure....have fun stopping Panarin and Copp. Stop them too? Okay, how's the Kid Line pinning Sergachev in his own zone for 2.5 minutes sound? (5) Igor does all the little things well. It's like his pads have Velcro. No rebounds. And the blocker saves to get the puck to the boards to clear the zone. Like....WTF. The mental poise and acuity to have the wherewithal to do that in the moment is insane. (6) Both my dad and my uncle, lifelong Rangers fans (God rest their souls), said the same thing my grandfather, Papa Tom (a Brooklyn bus driver), used to say all the time: there's nothing more dangerous than a team believing in its own magic. If we can take tomorrow night, sign me up for the believer category. Right now, file me under "cautiously optimistic but largely fatalistic due to history."

We scored 1 goal each of the first two games against Carolina. We've scored 17 in the last 3.

Dare I believe?

I'm stunned

Imma scared

All I say is this: every game we've played in their building was a nail biter for them. Every game they played in ours was a dominant showing for us. How we've only managed one goal in Carolina every game is beyond me. That said, I think we have to get in their faces early. It's clear they can't play the buffoonery game with us. A couple hits and some grind and they freak out. Come out the way we did in Game 1 against the Pens and we have a shot. Carolina has to lose at home eventually. Whether Game 7 is that game, I have no idea. The Game 1 whiffs really sting right now, but as people have pointed out already, every team has blown chances. It's what you do when your back is against the wall that matters. My gut feeling is that we play a close game but lose a heartbreaker late or in OT, but I'd honestly rather lose 10-0 than lose like that. I just don't see any way after Game 5 where we were absolutely smothered offensively that we can take one in their building, especially with Panarin and Kreider being largely invisible if not outright bad (in Panarin's case, the turnovers have been pretty egregious). BUT....Ben Bishop shut us out at MSG in a Game 7. A goalie playing as well as Shesterkin can steal a game. Really anything can happen, but we gotta get on the board early and get over the 1 goal hump. If we can score two goals by the time the second period ends, I might be a believer. This is the second youngest team in the league. Everyone is singing Vasilevskiy's praises, but he has a seasoned defense in front of him and a team that's not prone to coughing up golden opportunities. Before we anoint him the better playoff performer, let's see what Igor does when his defense has an average age over 25. I'm proud they've even forced a Game 7 after having to come back from down 3-1 against Pitt and after everyone saying the Canes would sweep. These guys are eminently beatable. I just don't know if we want it bad enough yet to do it. No matter what, we've come further than anyone would've predicted, and gained some huge experience. The fact that we're even in a position to move on to the ECFs when everyone on this board deemed everything after the Penguins as "just gravy" is incredible. This is exactly the type of run a young team needs before they eventually win it all. Just an incredible season for this team all around. The experience alone has been worth it.

Remember the salty Penguins fans? Canes in 4? Yeahhhhhhh.....about that... Far from over, winner of Game 5 likely takes the cake. And it may be Carolina's time after getting bounced last year but winning Metro this year. But no matter what happens, this is our first playoff foray in 5 years. The success so far is incredible. Igor is gonna be doing what Vasilevskiy is doing when the D in front of him has an average age over 24. The crazy thing is we're just going to keep getting better.

This has been just a weird series from the get-go. Game 1 never should've gone to OT. I don't know where we were at all in Games 3 and 4 and Shesty got lit up. But like, this team shows stretches of dominance that Pittsburgh doesn't. Yeah, they've run up the score on us, but due to bad turnovers and below average goaltending. We've never looked outclassed so much as hapless. Same cannot be said for them with our second period rallies. Remember the first 20 minutes of Game 1? Remember the 60 minutes of Game 2? Remember the second period rallies? We can dominate this team at will. The issue is the "at will" part. Playing the way I know we can, this should be a blowout victory with all the momentum. But with this series' residual weirdness, I am anything but confident.

Bears keeping in mind this is their first playoff foray. I'm just encouraged by the fact that Kakko and Laf, especially Laf, appear to show up when it matters. Both still VERY young too. Can either of them drink legally yet?

Speaking of superstitions, I know I mentioned this before somewhere on this board, but around Easter in 1994 was when it became clear that the Rangers were gunning for a Cup. For Easter I had gotten this cute little rabbit doll in pink suspenders. I named it Zubov because I liked the name (same reason our hamster was named Matteau). Zubov became the de facto good luck charm over the years. To get the magic out of him, you brandish him at the TV screen and shake him violently so his ears flop around aggressively. This happened so many times over the years that he's been stitched up several times. Nowadays, Zubov only comes out of retirement in dire instances. Remember the final seconds Brad Richards tying goal? Zubov was being shaken for the full last two minutes of that game. Remember the Stepan OT goal against the Caps after coming back from down 3-1? Family members were taking turns shaking Zubov for the whole OT up until that point. Tonight may, in fact, be a Zubov night. I'm still undecided because in theory, if we have any chance of making the second round (I do not believe for a second that we do based on playing 2 of the worst games I've seen this team play all season consecutively in Pittsburgh), the magic should be saved for higher stakes.

So I have a call to make and wanted to solicit opinions. Tossed $200 on Metro Division win when Rangers were +1600 last week of March. Offer to cash out bet is currently $1,000. Total payout would be $3,400 if it hits. Canes get the Jets tonight, and Isles are always a tricky team for us. It says a lot that we're playing so well and are so far ahead of them in the standings, and we're only -130 on the moneyline tonight. I'm torn: my fandom is warring with common sense. $1,000 is a lot of money. But how often do you have a realistic shot of hitting a +1600 bet? Problem is Canes have much easier strength of schedule and hold basically every tiebreaker at the moment. However, they end the season on a road trip, we end it on a 3-game home stand. What say you? Bird in the hand mentality, or f**k Vegas and LGR mentality?

And eichel made a Twitter account yesterday. He’s going to be a ranger fellas. I hope his neck his fixed. Nice knowing you Kakko and Zib.

Honestly with the health concerns, I wouldn't take him for free because it means losing Zibanejad. We can't afford both for more than one season. And I'd rather have Zib between the two. Well, that's not entirely fair. I'd take him for free with the understanding that we could then immediately deal him somewhere else.

Terrible. I've said before I wouldn't do Buchnevich for Eichel straight up. He's the only two-dimensional offensive player we had. Never backs down from a scrap. Doesn't take any crap from anyone. Very, very underwhelming return. That should have been a first round pick or there should have been a prospect included, minimum.

I'm staunchly against moving Buch. He's the only top 6 guy that doesn't shy away from mixing it up, and he's just hitting his stride as a great all-around winger. Let's not forget he was on our #1 PK and was DAMN good at it, in addition to being one of our most productive players for their price. I'll get lambasted for this, but after the thing with Eichel's neck, and his general "trade me" attitude (including the publicity that comes with it), I wouldn't even do Buch straight up for him. He's a one dimensional guy with too much controversy for someone so young.

Oh Jesus. You're telling me we're two years into a rebuild and Dolan ran out of patience? Well, who's ready for the same shit, different decade?

When he was rumored to be on the outs from Winnipeg, I saw people being willing to send Kakko the other way. Anybody still feel that way?

Agree with this, but what sucks is Buchnevich is almost certainly a casualty of the cap and circumstance. It's a shame, because I think he's gonna be a really good player still and it's almost certainly going to be a Jesper Fast situation where you don't realize just how much he did until he's gone. Fact is that he's been our best forward arguably next to Panarin, but all of the foregoing just makes him too damn valuable as a trade chip, and he's due for a raise of some kind with his new contract. This is kind of why I'm standing by my position that not trading Kreider last year was a mistake. He was the #1 trade target; they could've cleaned the hell up by dealing him. Maybe even brought back a good center prospect or young roster player. But now his contract and his de facto slot on the top 6 wings somewhere makes it very difficult to accommodate anyone else that makes more than an entry level salary. All of this being said, this thread is about our boy Vitali, and I can't wait to see what he brings. Quinn's gotta put him in a position to succeed. Before Kakko and Laf, he was our #1 prospect and ranked #1 in the league by Hockey's Future. I totally get preaching defensive responsibility, but if you're gonna shelter his even strength minutes to transition him, he had better get some time on the second power play unit. Having his confidence smashed by a lack of immediate production just recreates last year's sentiments that left a bad taste in everyone's mouths.

Apparently now the all time leader in goals (29) and points (74) for SHL U21 defenseman:

I'd be very, very hesitant to move Chytil, even for Eichel. I know he's not the player Eichel is, but in just a few games back he's already reestablished his importance to the team, and we're hurting for future centers as it is. Strome doesn't factor into long term plans IMO. Chytil is gonna be a special player. Same goes for Miller. I just don't see how moving him makes us better.

Anyone else find it a little funny that Edmonton picks first overall 4 times in 6 years, three of which in a row, and NJ picks first overall twice in 3 years, but they change it after the Rangers win for the first time in their history (that Andre Veilleux auxiliary draft doesn't count)? And even then, we only picked first overall because of pandemic extenuating circumstances?

I dunno, call me old school, or call me short sighted or whatever, but this kid's too talented to put up the numbers he has this year. Sensational talents score even on shit teams. Which tells me it's a lack of effort. And I just don't accept the whole "losing culture has got him down" thing. You're getting paid millions to be an NHL player. Show up every shift or retire.

The only 1980 jersey I own because he was such a great Rangers player too. Really sad, if my dad were still with us he'd be heartbroken.