Br4d

Was an optical illusion. Panarin never plants somebody in the boards like that. On the Kozmenko goal: is it a penalty if your butt in in the crease before you bring the puck in?

The Big Whistle would be smiling right about now. "Shoot the puck Breadman! Shoot the puck!"

Wrong thread.

The ice seems a bit off tonight. Players on both sides having trouble controlling the puck.

That's Panarin's game though. He floats around the edges with some vision and makes beautiful passes. I don't know what the answer is but Panarin's playstyle is a lot less effective deep in the playoffs when the opponents have narrowed down to those who always keep track of things on the ice. And for people who are going to bring up the Gretzky analogy: Gretzky did most of his damage within 30 feet of the crease. A lot of it down low where he used his tremendous vision and anticipation to setup easy goals for his teammates.

We'll be looking for it at an AAV of $1M though. Gotta pay the kids somehow.

The two playoff series last year both turned on a big Trouba hit and this season has also. I don't think he's going to be the guy the Rangers move on from in a couple of years when the NMC's start expiring. Certainly not if GG is still in charge.

If the Leafs are the other team on Kane's short list plz don't try to bring him here. We need somebody to knock off the Bruins in that bracket and making Toronto stronger is probably a major win for us.

I'm getting used to the Rangers being ahead in games played by now and having weird breaks due to that fact. This has to be on us somehow though. It has to be due to requests by the team because otherwise it is just bizarre how often we are a game or three ahead of the people we are chasing and then have to sit and watch them make the chase harder for several days.

Kravtsov is soft. Panarin is soft. Kakko is soft. Exactly how many people so you think the Rangers can play at the same time with those attributes? The other two are producing outside of the fundamental fact that they are not hitters or particularly physical players. I'm going to go back to the position that Kravtsov's real opportunity was last season and while he was sitting in Russia saying "i'll bet those guys really miss me right about now" he was also missing his best shot at becoming a top 9 player for the Rangers.

Kravtsov is soft and Lafreniere is not. I think one of the reasons that Kravtsov is having trouble getting out of GG's doghouse is that he's not a physical player and he's not producing points and between those two things why exactly should he be getting ice time?

If the Rangers are seriously considering trading Kravtsov they should give him a shot at some ice and tell him to make his market. That'll tell them a lot about where his head is right now. I kind of have a gut feeling that going back to Russia last year cut off one of his big opportunities in the NHL and it is not that clear he'll get another. He was headed to the AHL to start but the Rangers had difficulty at RW all season until they made the early and late deadline deals for Vatrano and Copp. It's pretty clear that he'd have been called up and given a real shot at some point as Kakko was invisible for parts of the season and the depth at RW was terrible.

If you play him for any reason you give him a chance to show something. I have no idea why he was on the ice in Tarasenko's first game with the Rangers. I could suggest a lot of possibilities related to having a prominent and polished fellow Russian in his first game with the team but really who knows why GG gave him a good slot that night? If he'd scored a goal or assisted on one maybe he would have been in the lineup the next night also. The Rangers are probably one of the top 5 teams in the NHL right now. It's tough for a young guy to break in on that kind of roster.

Hoping we get lucky and somebody knocks out the Bruins before we run into them. One game left to get into their heads and then we won't see them again until the finals if we get there.

Watching the run last year was special. That took me all the way back to the '79 run to the finals. This team has more talent than the '79 team or last year's team. You can make a pretty good argument that we have 3 defenders at least that would be in the top pair on most franchises and we have 3 scoring lines and of course Shesterkin who is the best goalie in the NHL for my money. The backup is not to shabby either.

Because the Rangers are a good team in contention for a cup. You don't give young players a blank check on teams that are fighting to get over the top unless those young players have shown *production*. Potential is for rebuilding teams or teams that have no other choice due to depth or injury concerns. I'm not in agreement with everything that GG has done this season but he makes a very valid point when he says that he is doing the things that most help the Rangers win right now. That's his primary job with a roster that has this much talent and depth. Much like Chytil and Kakko and Lafreniere Kravtsov isn't playing for the kind of team that will just throw regular shifts at him without regard to his production. Those teams aren't making the playoffs this year.

Tarasenko - Kakko - Kravtsov - Gauthier Zibanejad - Chytil - Trocheck - Goodrow - Lechy Kreider - Lafreniere - Panarin - Vesey Vesey and Goodrow can both slot up if Kravtsov isn't playing well. If Kravtsov plays well they don't have too. If he doesn't then the Rangers have to decide if renting a RW at an exorbitant cost is necessary. Maybe they just call Cuylle back up and put him on line 4 and let Kravtsov sit for a bit. This roster has more talented depth right now than it has had in a couple of decades.

The kids worked just fine in the playoffs last season albeit definitely playing 3rd line minutes.

We beat the 'Canes in their house. They've got to be looking cross-eyed at us by now. That 1st period last night the ice looked like it was tilted straight down into the Ranger's zone. If Halak isn't sharp we're down 3-1 going into the 2nd period. Then the 2nd period the play is a bit more balanced and then GG flips the lines in the 3rd and we run away with it.

I think you watch how this team plays over the next two and a half weeks and make the decision on another big move at that point. This assuming nobody gets hurt in the interim. The 1st next year is going to be a good prospect and Robertson is a good prospect and Kravtsov is still a good prospect. That's a lot to give up for a rental unless you're 100% sure you need to go that route.

He's probably also not wanting to make any moves that cut off a bigger deadline acquisition. We're already probably in double retention territory which gets expensive. Another smaller move might just cut off the possibility to make another move if he decides that Vesey really should be part of the 4th line as a dedicated checking line for the playoffs.

Does Panarin get the breakaway without the assist? Methinks no.

If Panarin finds his touch the Rangers will have 3 lines with guys capable of scoring 30-40 goals. Zib and Tarasenko and Kreider are all capable of that. Panarin on line 2 and Chytil on line 3. The only problem with the current lineup is that once you split Panarin off of line 1 it kind of makes his line line 2 and that makes the kids line 3.

The first goal he scored last night was a pure scorer at work: snapshot from the top of the circle before the goalie could get set after the pass.

I really hope so. My #1 plan for the Rangers to win a cup this year is to avoid the Bruins in the playoffs.