Br4d

That'd be even worse because Torts never made it to the NHL. You know these guys are looking at Panarin and thinking if they had the talent he has they'd have destroyed the NHL.

GG and Panarin is a duo for the ages. Hard-headed 80's/90's player who was a crazy grinder and fighter coaching a modern era flyer who works the edge with as little contact as humanly possible and makes every pass available (well until last night.) Panarin must drive GG absolutely insane at times.

Again I agree with most of this but in the period in which Chytil and Kakko have come alive the Rangers are playing as well as anybody in the NHL. The talent base is as good as anybody else and they're 20-4-3 since the kids line started consistently producing. In that is 2-0 after the Tarasenko acquisition when it becomes crystal clear that the Rangers talent matches up against the best in the NHL. The early season blues were about Trocheck and Panarin not meshing and the kids getting off to another slow start and the Rangers just not playing well in front of Halak. Those things have all resolved over time, sometimes with what seemed like endless fiddling with the lines but look where we are now. If the Rangers have the best record moving forward I think GG is going to be in the running precisely because of all the meshing issues the Rangers had early on in their struggles and how those were eventually resolved. Probably the biggest move GG has made all year is to stick the kids together with glue. His remark about how they defer too much when matched with the vets seems almost prescient given how well they have played together since he just put them together and went with it.

I get moving Panarin up obviously but I think I would have gone with Panarin +1 and Halak +1. The Rangers don't win the game last night without Halak doing a man's job in the net.

He's also skating hard right now. Lots of hits too, just like the playoffs when the kids were hot.

About 14 months since Panarin last looked like he might be one of the top 5 players in the NHL. 3 goals and 7 pts back to back games against the Blackhawks in December 2021.

Not that I'm going to disagree with a lot of this but the way the Rangers are playing right now GG has a shot at coach of the year.

They have 3 games against the 'Canes. It's a chance but they have to win those games. Also I think they have a mental advantage over the 'Canes at this point because of the way they won the playoff round last season.

Kravtsov makes more sense on this roster now that we have Tarasenko. He can play or sit, probably both, and develop without any pressure to put him up in the top 9. He can play on the Tro-Kreider line or that line can drop to line 3 with Goodrow at RW and the kids up getting line 2 minutes while Kravtsov sits. It's almost like he's a freebie prospect at this point because RW is stable in his presence and in his absence.

This is the biggest game of the season so far. Rangers really want to catch the 'Canes for #1 seed in the Metropolitan and it will be very hard without 2 points tonight in regulation.

The Rangers are going to be hard to match up against at this point. The open question for me is how good Tarasenko is as a forechecker. Does he match up well with Zibanejad in that role? That line is going to score a lot of goals and if Tarasenko complements Zibanejad's forechecking the line will too much for a lot of teams to handle.

And 3 legit scoring lines and line 4 has 3 guys who can grind out a goal. Pinch me.

They've always been too perfect this season. They're putting them in the net tonight.

Laffy has looked really good since Chytil took off. It's like all the pressure went off of him and he's just playing the game now.

Chytil is so hot right now we have no idea where he's going to wind up. He is getting a bit lucky (the goal off the face-off, the spin and turn goal) but he's also shooting quicker than most goalies can manage unless the puck just hits them. It's true that he got similarly hot in a short span in the playoffs last season but this feels different. It really feels like he has arrived and unlike the playoffs he's not facing the same team every night making adjustments to try to shut him down. I don't think we'd be surprised if he finished with 30 goals this season. Would we be surprised if he scored 21 goals in 31 games and finished with 40?

of the hit or the no goals?

Having already made a deal for a top 6 RW the Rangers have the luxury of seeing how it all gels for a week or two before starting the churn again. Odds are pretty good that in two weeks the Rangers will look just fine and ready for the playoffs barring a major injury or GG doing something really silly.

Let's just watch the minutes to see how much of a screwup we're witnessing. If line 3 is down to 13 minutes a game plus Chytil and Kakko on whatever PP2 gets, well that will be the GG conundrum continuing.

It's probably going to be Kreider. Rangers would be nuts to trade Lindgren at this point. He's turning into one of the better defensive LD in the NHL.

Rangers just need to get the appropriate deal done. Chytil didn't break out this season he started in the playoffs last season. What he's doing this year is a step up from that but 7 goals in the playoffs on 3rd line minutes with little PP time was an indicator that he was finally showing his true colors.

Panarin gets both assists on the lone goal?

That would be too much of a "look-at-me" move. If it floundered he'd get fired immediately.

The task in front of the Rangers is catching the 'Canes for the #1 seed in the Metropolitan. Want to avoid the Bruins in the playoffs for as long as possible and hope somebody else knocks them out.

If Tarasenko has chemistry with Panarin the deal is worthwhile.

It's hard to imagine an addition being more significant than Lindgren. The Rangers would need to add a top line RW that opens up both Panarin and Zibanejad to get into that ballpark and even then it's gotta be a guy who is a driver on that line not an efficient passenger. Kane is having a down season with injury concerns. Tarasenko is having a down season. I don't think either of them is worth giving up Lindgren this year or next.