Ranger Lothbrok

this is all the scouting report we need really. get in.

I just love that after all his time in the business, JD still has that level of drive and child-like excitement. When we win a Cup with the guys in the system right now, he'll be one of the biggest reasons why. I didn't get the hype, but I get it now. For the first time since pre-94 Neil Smith I feel like there's a plan.

I think Lundqvist was a really big factor in the Rangers coming back from 3-1 down TWICE in the same postseason. I think he deserves a lot of kudos for that. He was a big, big reason they beat Washington and Pittsburgh in those playoffs.

To what end though? Every one of those playoff runs ended in ignominy. I still blame Dan Girardi and the refs for 2014, but where was Hank when we needed him to keep up the one goal lead with 5 minutes left? How many times over his career do we remember the other team pulling their goalie and actually tying the game as a result, even as we could never do the same? I certainly felt sick to my stomach every time we had a one goal lead with 2 minutes on the clock. I just knew the game would get tied. I never had faith we'd get the stop we needed.

And yes, I know it's a team effort. A timely clearing of the puck makes all the difference in the world and likely wins the game. But I NEVER felt, even at his peak, that Henrik deserved the lable he had of being a clutch performer.

Yeah, Henrik was one of the last big pillars of my early-mid 2000s idols. I lost David Wright, then I lost Eli Manning, and Henrik was the last New York sports icon for me. It really does feel like a part of me died.

I think the thing that really hit home for me is that I will never again hear at the Garden: "And in goal, Number Thirty, Heeennnnnrrriiiikkkkk Lundqvist!!!"

Leetch never willed bad teams to the post season. He was on all seven of those "Dark Ages" teams.

 

Hank did. Go look at the Conference Final rosters Hank has had. Look at his Stanley Cup Final roster. He's made chicken salad out of chicken shit in basically every single season he's played but for the last two years.

To be fair though, it's much, much harder to be the X-Factor that carries a team when you're a defenseman. I'd argue the nature of the position of goaltending lends itself to a GOAT argument. When you compare resumes, however, and discount the idea of carrying a team, I think it's Leetch for me by a pretty wide margin. Make no mistake, the Cup thing matters. Like, A LOT. It will forever be the blemish on Henrik's otherwise sterling career. It's not the be-all end-all of the debate, but it skews it heavily for me.

RangersIn7's point about Richter's signature moments kind of makes the point aptly. Where was the Pavel Bure penalty shot stop? The robbing the Devils of a goal mere seconds before "MATTEAU MATTEAU!!!" Henrik made some big saves in the playoffs, but he also made some big whiffs. That game winning goal against Tampa in Game 7 of the ECFs in 2015 was atrocious. It was a softy from center ice. Granted, the team sucked that whole game and laid a massive egg on home ice. But Ben Bishop didn't make those mistakes. In fact, I would argue that in every playoff series we lost, it was heavily due in part to Henrik being outplayed by the other team's goalie. The Rangers turned scrubs into world-beaters (and we still do), but I can't remember a time we needed that huge save from Henrik in the playoffs and actually got it.

Maybe there is actually no factual basis for this claim, and my opinion is more than likely tarnished from the past few years of the shell of Henrik in net, but for me, he was never a "big game" goalie. When it mattered most, he couldn't get it done.

I will say that my favorite "lighting money on fire" standard bet is for Broadway Brett to score. I think literally the only time it paid off was during opening night, and I also had him to get the game winner. It was a stuff-in around the net if I recall correctly. Paid pretty well.

Nonsense aside, I just don't see it with the eye test. I'm not an expert, but he doesn't do anything particularly well. His skating is average or below, he's not exactly dynamite in the faceoff circle for someone that allegedly is one of our defensive circles, his shot is pedestrian, he doesn't have great vision, he doesn't play overly physical or have a decent net-front presence, etc. I'm not sure what oodles of potential I'm missing out on here.

I'll preface this by saying I don't think Howden is as bad as some here do, and I also don't think he's very good either... However when smart hockey people who spend their lives around the game either draft him (Yzerman), dress him (Quinn), talk him up (JD) or don't completely shit on him (Pronman)... You have to take that into account, right?

 

What do they see that we don't? He's got to do a ton of small things that don't show up on the scoresheet, I guess?

 

The best player he lined up last year was Chytil. He spent most of his time with Chytil, Kakko (who's statistically one of the worst forwards in the NHL), Brendan Lemieux (who's hot garbage) and Greg McKegg (who's Greg McKegg).

 

I'd like to see him with some more skilled linemates, or have him on that same line with continued development from Kakko and Chytil. If Kakko moves up, Lafreniere / Howden / Chytil is my third line.

Agree with this. I also found the rankings to be a touch out of order, overly optimistic, and frankly a total reach in some places. He projects Howden as a bottom 6 guy. Okay, great. Those are very useful and, in all honesty, we need better ones. Also projects him as a "very good NHL player." Yet he's ahead of Kravtsov who, two years ago, was ranked as one of the top prospects in the entire world (I think Hockey's Future had him as #1 actually). He's ahead of Miller who has all the hallmarks of being a sensational top-4 guy. I don't really see it. I don't know what I'm missing, or what many of us are missing for that matter, when it comes to Broadway Brett.

I'm not sure I agree with us being #1 in the NHL pre-2020 draft either. Post-Lafreniere, sure, I could see it. But one guy on the special/elite bubble, and handful of high-end/very good players, and a bunch of legit NHLers? I just feel like other teams with more sensational prospects in their system belong up higher, especially when you factor in our glaring lack of center depth in the future and the lack of any serious goalie prospects to speak of, even though Igor and Georgiev just missed the cut-off age-wise for this list.

I won't bitch about being #1 but I also don't see it.

Appear in court. I used to feel like a total dilettante, like I was a kid wearing his daddy's clothes and his dad's friends all thought it was funny. Found judges and basically every adversary intimidating. Got a pit in my stomach every time I saw an in-court appearance on the schedule. Felt sick driving to court every time.

The more I did it, the more I realized a couple of things:

(1) There's no substitute for the relationships that only come with time. The people that fare the best are the ones who are all friendly with each other.

(2) Many of the adversaries are also faking it until they make it. Bluster and righteous indignation go a long way in their minds. Doesn't mean they're smart, or well-prepared. In fact, generally it's the opposite. I find the screaming and yelling hilarious now and make it a point to fuck with them. I once said to one guy, after he told me my case was going to get kicked for failure to comply with discovery and that I should just settle, "Wow...it sounds like I'm really in a pickle. What do you recommend I do?" He thought I was completely serious. I can actually take advantage of my youthful look (I'm older than I look) to portray a Bambi-like vibe and then steamroll them on the record. Most never see it coming. Some fell for it multiple times.

(3) Many judges are regular people who believe they're just doing a job. Some are drunk on power, but it's not as bad as I thought. Be succinct and to the point, and nobody cares.

(4) Along that same line, everyone is just doing their job. The less fixated you are with the concepts of winning and losing, the less personal it is for you. When you get home, it's time to stop thinking about it until the next morning. Also, the legal profession disproportionately both attracts and rewards mental illness.

I still can't believe it happened. For some reason, I insisted on being in front of the TV for the lottery this year. Just had a feeling. Even though it's never us, I kept thinking our luck has to change, and I could literally see the ball come up in my mind. I had a dream the night we got eliminated that we won the lottery. I even saw Gorton's reaction in the dream (he flew out of his chair and did a fist pump), though it was much more emphatic than his weird smirk. Got home from work at like 6:10, didn't even take the puppy outside to do his peepee, I just let him go on the floor. Totally worth it. It normally takes me an hour and 15 minutes to get home. Thanks to COVID, I did it in 45. Never watched a lottery before. Just truly, truly odd that it actually happened. For what it's worth, even though Edmonton and Pittsburgh were involved, I was convinced it would be Minnesota.

Still trying to sort out just how lucky we got though. Like, I know we got obscenely lucky. But did we get 1st overall in a year where it kind of doesn't matter? By all accounts, he's not a generational talent. Then again, people have Byfield penciled in as a Malkin-esque #1 center, and everyone keeps talking about how good this draft is. But then they also talk about what a large dropoff there is from Lafreniere to everyone else. So if Byfield is a #1 center in the making in what is supposedly a phenomenal draft, and Lafreniere is the clear choice over him, what does that say for Lafreniere? And what does it say that Byfield was invisible at the World Juniors (didn't even play a single shift in the final against Russia), and Lafreniere made the tournament his bitch despite a seemingly nasty injury? Lafreniere returned and got a goal and an assist in his first game back after the injury.

Clearly not McDavid, Ovechkin or Crosby. Hell, stupid Pierre McGuire doesn't even think he's MacKinnon level, though that might be non-center bias and I don't trust Pierre's opinion on anything. Are we looking at Taylor Hall without the attitude issues? Something better? Perennial all-star? Superstar? Just elite level?

All of this being said (and asked), watch us take Yaroslav Askarov because, as Glen Sather once famously put it: "you can never have too many goalies."

Uh. Wow.

Am I alone in saying I never thought I would see this in my lifetime? I screamed so loud when I saw the corner of the ball all three of my dogs hid in the bathroom lol.

I won’t watch it lol. I’ll just wait for the texts of excitement when we get it

That's what I did for Kakko/Hughes lottery. I had a text convo going with three people from work, two Rangers fans and one Devils fan. I was halfway home from the office when my phone started blowing up. Eventually I had to call one of them to find out what the hell was happening because I was driving. It was very exciting. I listened to them announce the top 3 over the phone.

We all know it is DEFINITELY going to be Edmonton or Pitt. You have to wonder though, these are the best odds we've had of picking first overall in like...ever. At some point our luck has to change...right?

We all know it's not going to though. These fucking lotteries always go to Edmonton or Pitt.

Probably too soon for rose colored glasses, but I thought I might float some positivity out there. Before this season started, we all thought we were going nowhere. With a roster full of players that have never seen postseason action, we got to play meaningful hockey in August. We got to see the heir apparent to the throne continue his dominant play at the world's highest level, and it's a sign of things to come. We watched Kakko struggle, then return and look like the player we always thought he would be at only 19 years old. We inked one of our top veteran forwards for several more years. Ryan Lindgren and Adam Fox were revelations, with Lundkvist and Miller on the way. We watched our shiny new free agent acquisition have an MVP season. We had the luxury of a true #1 center for the first time in I don't know how long.

Nobody thought we'd even sniff the playoffs, and we were one of the hottest teams in the league going in to the pause. The future is bright people. This experience was invaluable, and this team will only get better. And if we get the #1 overall pick? I'm prepared to call this an unmitigated success.

What do you like most about the team? How optimistic are you for the future? What was your favorite moment this season?

$5 says they don't even score a goal. This has 2-0 loss written all over it.

Agree with this. Classic Rangers is going out with a serious whimper. Even if they win, teams that have gone down 2-0 in a best of five have lost 55/56 series. Yikes.