Kick save and a beauty

The Goodrow fire hydrant is now open.

Yeah except that their version of "going at it" is where Panarin does his sky kick and dares Kane to match it with his surgically repaired hip.

It (the fight) should have happened before last night but if nothing else we got this episode over with and Rempe can get back to (legally) pasting guys into the boards which is where his true contributions may come from looking forward.

Given the way that all of these teams seem to be falling over themselves to miss the playoffs, maybe the expression should not be the they "peaked too soon" but rather that they "slumped too late". Capitals struggling against the Penguins. Islanders struggling against the Blue Jackets... Nobody seems to want it.

I am going to go on the record and say we are one Kakko goal in the next game away from an "Is Kakko turning his career around?" thread. What a wonderful time for that if it does happen. The stage is yours kid. Go out and grab it.

The people who say there is no such thing as an ugly win.... Are idiots

whelp... nothing comes easy I suppose

If they can figure out how to penalize Rempe I am sure they will consider it.

TNT did a really crappy job showing any replays of the offside challenge.

Roofed it !!!!

goooo-ooooo-oooooool <sings>

Hopefully the west beats itself into a pulp and we end up winning the cup against a weakened team. I suspect that Dallas may emerge from that side of the house. With that said if we make it through both Carolina and then Florida after the first round we may well have some bumps and bruises ourselves.

We have had problems with teams who can score in bunches and who rarely play any defense. Arizona was one of those but there are several others which fit the bill. For some reason we play like we are fine with the whole track meet concept and feel like we should be able to beat those teams while playing in that style. Tonight is Crosby, Malkin and Letang. The best way to fuck them up is to suffocate them in a defensive sleeper hold.

First of all we are in. The playoff seeding is all that remains to be decided so in one sense what else is there to think about and discuss between now and playoff game 1? I am not "concerned" about our first round opponent as much as I find it interesting that we have a direct head to head say in who that opponent might be. My concern, more of a preference really and to the extent it existed when I started this thread was to avoid the hot team (Tampa Bay) if possible. That matchup now seems very unlikely given the mathematics involved. We have a chance to directly shovel some dirt on WC2 aspirations given the way the schedule shakes out. The first shovel full starts tonight for the Penguins.

Should be fun to see Pens fans conflicted about which Rangers player, Trouba or Rempe to hate more. I know it will take a while for Rempe to get up inside their heads but let's face it we are talking about the heads of Pens fans. How steep of a climb could that really be?

We have played well enough to get ourselves into the driver's seat for this final stretch. A 3 point lead and a game in hand with 8 games to go is really a pretty big cushion at this point. It is a little unusual that six of our remaining eight games are against the five teams vying with each other to be WC2 team. We literally have a lot to say about which team we might be playing against in round-1. That begins tonight against the Pens. They have been showing some sign life lately. Even beating Carolina but tonight we can put them to bed I think.

The wild card is coming into a little more focus. It really looks like WC1 is either Tampa or Toronto, whichever of them does not net the Atlantic 3rd seed. Same thing in the Metro, the 3rd seed will almost certainly be the Caps or the Flyers. Let's assume it is the caps for a moment. That leaves us down to these 5 teams for the final WC with NJ and the Pens being real long shots. Philadelphia Detroit Islanders Devils Penguins Oddly enough 6 of out final 8 games are against this exact group of five teams (each of them once except the Islanders who we will meet twice). We will have a really large say in which team we get to see in the first round.

Does he have a no trade clause? If not maybe we could seduce some team or other with his statistics.

Things are rounding into shape with the trade deadline additions, the Matt Rempe call up. We are expecting all of our current injuries to return soon. I think we will know a lot more about Matt Rempe after these next nine games as I expect that he will know a lot more about himself. It is likely we will be needing his physicality more against the likes of Carolina, Boston or Florida and so not necessarily as much in the first round. Injuries are in the lap of the gods and all we do know is that those are going to happen if you have a deep run. We are not super deep everywhere but then again nobody is. Goalie depth is stellar although ,like most here I hope to not need Quick very much if at all. A couple of years ago Tyler Mott and Frank Vatrano both came up huge for us in the playoffs. I wonder who the surprises might be this year (Kakko perhaps?)

Is it just me or did Chad Ruhwedel play a pretty strong game tonight?

Sat, Mar 30 @Arizona 6:00 PM Tickets as low as $183 Mon, Apr 1 vsPittsburgh 7:00 PM Tickets as low as $117 Wed, Apr 3 vsNew Jersey 7:00 PM Tickets as low as $116 Fri, Apr 5 @Detroit 7:00 PM Tickets as low as $74 Sun, Apr 7 vsMontreal 7:00 PM Tickets as low as $99 Tue, Apr 9 @New York 7:00 PM Tickets as low as $108 Thu, Apr 11 vsPhiladelphia 7:00 PM Tickets as low as $103 Sat, Apr 13 vsNew York 12:30 PM Tickets as low as $176 Mon, Apr 15 vsOttawa 7:30 PM Tickets as low as $97

now comes the tough part where the schedule gets easier.

I do not pay too much heed to power rankings but those guys over at ESPN are so disrespectful to this Rangers team. They have been all year long. New ones due out tomorrow or Saturday but currently we are SIXTH on their list and we have beaten their top three teams Florida, Boston and now Colorado very recently. Two of those games on the road. Fuck you ESPN and the horse you rode in on.

Extra flavoring: Stopped that whole McKinnon streak too

Yeah but she comes in handy in the cinema so there is that.