Br4d

I'm going to go with the comeback win against the 'Canes. That's when I first thought this team might do some real damage in the playoffs. That kind of capped a month of very good hockey and it came against the top dog in the division.

It's early but this definitely has the look of a team on a date with destiny and my guess is she's not gonna order the lobster this time.

Wow. I'm pretty sure that's the latest goal I've ever witnessed.

How do we know what his conditioning was coming in? He could easily by at 80% from Covid and have that look like what we are seeing now.

If Kreider is out for any significant period of time it probably just makes sense to give Zibanejad the kid wings again. Give Trocheck Vesey and Goodrow as the checking line and put Chytil up between Panarin and Kravtsov.

Covid. When all the other answers don't seem to fit there's always Covid. Bitch of a disease that has long-lasting effects that we've only begun to figure out. Obviously there's no survival value as an NHL player in ignoring your fitness or letting your weight get out of hand. Whenever I see Laffy red-faced and puffing the first thing that comes to mind is the friend I have who went from being very active to red-faced and puffing after a short walk. After having Covid of course. She's 56 so obviously a difference but it just looks so similar.

Vesey's been doing a pretty good job moving around the lineup so far. I think it's a pretty good depth signing for the Rangers.

OK, it's taken all season but I believe this team might do some damage in the playoffs.

'Canes are 10-0 in last 10 games. No amount of tricksy line shifting is going to stop the Rangers getting pushed up the north end of a southbound mule here. They better be playing their best game tonight.

30 goals is 30 goals. The Rangers wouldn't be in the position of potentially trading him away for a rental this year.

Well he'd likely have been a 30 goal scorer last year if he was on PP1. Now I know that's not saying he'd be a major star but how different would the perspective be both for him and everybody else if he'd scored 30 goals and had 55 points last season? That's likely what putting him on PP1 would have done. I get that he's not a great player at this point but the overall disappointment level in him has been greatly exacerbated by the Rangers treating him like a guy who has to fight for every scrap on the ice. That's *not* how you treat a #1OA unless you really want to be disappointed in him. A #1OA LW on most bad teams gets the best C on the team next to him and a good RW as well. That's because it is in the interest of the team to give their best overall prospect the best chances to succeed.

Panarin Kreider Where's the opportunity for a #1OA LW to break out as of the moment he arrived on the roster? Yes, #1OA's don't usually wind up on a talented roster however this particular talented roster was loaded at his specific position. This has led to zero opportunities on the PP. It has led to very little time in the top 6. And LaFreniere has had a target on his back the whole time. You don't think the guys lining up opposite him knew they were lining up against a #1OA? You don't think they put a little bit more into their play when they line up against him, particularly when he was 19 and 20? You can't blame anybody but LaFreniere for his part of the equation but the Rangers have flat out stunk at creating the opportunities for him to break out. There was a point last year where he was #2 on the Rangers in ESG. Looking at the overall picture I think you have to ask why the Rangers wasted the high picks they did. It's not just LaFreniere that has disappointed. Maybe he and a few others would have done better if they were labeled the savior on a bad team coming in and fed the minutes and opportunities to try to get the job done.

This goes back your point about no consistent defensive scheme to work in. If GG is going to run a vanilla scheme everywhere but on the PP then the only tools he has to change things on the ice are the locker room peppers, the lines and the minutes he gives individual players. Your players have to be very good to make the choices he has work. If a player or two stops producing at their assigned level for any reason things start to break down.

Obviously a huge game, maybe the biggest of the season to date. Beating the Islanders and Caps in a row establishes the Rangers as the favorite to not be the team left out.

When your best player is inappropriate in almost any defensive scheme it makes it hard to have the system you so desperately want. At some point you're going to have to concede that the Rangers freewheeling offense - led by Artemi Panarin - is also the thing that makes it extremely unlikely they can put a grind-grind-grind defensive system in play.

Law firms are putting their employees images online? What moron thought that one up?

Maybe Miller should be a center?

I'm just really not sure how the kid line got reunited. Lafreniere-Zibanjed-Kakko looked solid. That was a line the Rangers should have given some more ice. Not complaining but GG is clearly not a guy who throws things against the wall to see if they stick.

Just hang on to the pole and you should be fine. Can keep your eyes on the screen as you twirl and won't lose your balance.

It just seems like a guy who didn't have the rep as a slacker and who was playing at a very high energy level as late as June last year is a really good candidate for "health problems are tripping him up." This seems much more likely than he's not doing conditioning and lazing around when he's effectively in a contract year.

Was thinking about Lafreniere and remembering how different he seemed last year, with a much higher energy level. Anybody remember him being on the Covid list at any point? He seems to be huffing and puffing after one good rush. It's easy to point at maybe the odd donut as the culprit but I know a few people who got really messed up by Covid.

Chytil is more valuable to the Rangers right now than anybody outside Igor, Zib, Fox, Panarin and maybe Kreider. He plays upfront somewhere other than LW. He's playing very well and maturing into a two way center right in front of our eyes. Assuming he stays healthy I think he's going to be the first person the Rangers deal with at the end of the season.

I call Curly!

I'll take random wins over random losses.

The team is constructed poorly. That's the only way to look at the problems at 5v5 the last couple of years when the Rangers talent looks much better than that. My opinion, which will undoubtedly be shat on, is that the Rangers key problem is they're not tough enough on the ice in a natural way. This is why we keep getting people like Goodrow forced up in the top 6 when their natural role would be 3rd or 4th line. It's why the Rangers seem soft in front of their own goal. To avoid absolutely being shat upon I will not mention the player who most epitomizes this soft non-defensive NFL play style because you know it's not like other players look at him and try to emulate him...